Day: August 18, 2022

Exiled Chadian rebel leader Timan Erdimi has returned to the country after a decade in exile in Qatar for talks aiming to pave the way for democratic elections. But boycotts by rebel and opposition groups remain major hurdles.

Erdimi, now 67, returned Thursday, ahead of Saturday’s anticipated landmark talk in N’Djamena, Chad’s capital. Erdimi, who heads the Union of Resistance Forces — widely known as UFR — is accused of leading an armed group that attempted to twice overthrow the Chadian government, in 2008 and 2019.

Comprising at least 40 rebel groups, Erdimi’s UFR signed a peace agreement on August 8 in Doha for talks that would pave the way for elections after 18 months of military rule in Chad.

But two of the biggest rebel groups are boycotting the negotiations forum. Agence France-Presse has reported that the two groups — Front for Change and Concord in Chad — triggered the 2021 offensive in northeastern Chad that killed longtime leader Idriss Deby Itno. The groups claim the forum is politically biased.

The upcoming talks also are expected to bring together 1,400 delegates from the military government, civil society opposition parties, and trade unions.

According to General Mahamat Idriss Deby, president of Chad’s transitional military council, the talks provide a chance for reconciliation in the fractured country.

The junta’s 18-month window for transition to democracy expires in October — a deadline that France, the African Union and other stakeholders have urged the president to uphold.

Source: Voice of America

The White House announced Thursday it will make an additional 1.8 million doses of monkeypox vaccine available for distribution beginning next week.

At a news conference, White House national monkeypox response coordinator Bob Fenton said the additional doses will be available for U.S. jurisdictions to order starting Monday, through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra also took part in the news briefing.

Fenton said in the less than 10 days since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC authorized the Jynneos vaccine for emergency use against monkeypox in individuals 18 years of age and older, HHS has delivered nearly 1 million doses to U.S. states and cities, making it the largest program of its kind for monkeypox vaccine in the world.

Fenton said the additional doses are part of the National Monkeypox Response Team’s plan to address the viral disease’s outbreak in the United States and mitigate its spread.

He said HHS has been working on launching a pilot program that will provide up to 50,000 doses from the national stockpile to be made available for events that will have high attendance of gay and bisexual men.

While monkeypox is not classified as a sexually transmitted infection, or STI, it has been found to be disproportionally affecting men who have sex with men. The disease can spread through close or intimate physical contact such as hugging, kissing and sex. It can also be transmitted by touching infected items such as clothing, bedding or towels.

Fenton said the Biden administration has also significantly increased availability and convenience of monkeypox tests, expanding capacity from 6,000 tests per week to 80,000 tests per week.

Source: Voice of America