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From Our Own Correspondent: Questions of Loyalty

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Kosovo Election

20/02/2021 GMT

Questions of Loyalty

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, Questions of Loyalty

What does Albin Kurti want for Kosovo? Plus: Yemen's many layers of war and Cuban queues

Kosovo's voters elected Albin Kurti's Self-Determination party by a landslide - but what does he want? Plus: Yemen's multi-layered conflict and Cuba's lengthening queues for food

Kosovo declared its independence 13 years ago, but how viable is it as an independent state? After a landslide victory for the opposition Self-Determination party last week, the firebrand politician, former KLA member and prisoner Albin Kurti is back as Prime Minister. Yet as Guy Delauney remembers, Kurti has often seemed keener on the symbols of Albania than Kosovo itself. What does Mr Kurti really want for Kosovo - and what do Kosovans want from their government?

Pascale Harter introduces this and other stories from reporters and writers around the world. 

The war in Yemen has been disastrous for the country's civilians, as the number of people killed by airstrikes, bombings and famine has climbed ever higher. It's a conflict so intractable that it's embroiled every level and sector of Yemen's society, and international allies and backers on all sides from across the region. There are so many layers of loyalty, and so many factions at work, that few outsiders have managed to understand it - much less resolve it. Recently Leila Molana Allen visited the south of the country and met some of the region's traditional, tribal leaders to hear how and why they have been forced to step in to try and save some lives and livelihoods. In a special dispatch, she explores the many complexities of political life in Yemen, and their effect on families, homes and clans. 

And in Havana, Will Grant joins the people scouring the streets of Havana for food - and joining some of its lengthening queues. As the Covid pandemic hits the country's hard-currency income, and government economic reforms try to iron out problems in supply and demand, it's getting harder and harder to find some basic necessities. So finding a special treat for his wife's birthday becomes something of a challenge...

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