Three opposition parties in the Tigray region have issued a joint statement urging the public to remain united and neutral amidst the ongoing power struggles within the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) leadership. The National Congress of Great Tigray (Baytona), Salsay Weyane Tigray, and the Tigray Independence Party appealed to Tigrayans to prioritize regional interests over TPLF infighting, emphasizing the need for unity and neutrality. This comes in the backdrop of recent remarks made by Tigray Interim President Getachew Reda making TPLF political leadership accountable for widespread corruption, mismanagement, and insecurity in the region. Getachew openly admitted a breakdown in governance in the region due to lack of cooperation between the interim administration, security forces, and the judiciary, with “internal divisions within the TPLF leadership further exacerbating the crisis.” (Addis Standard)

The Kenyan-mediated South Sudan peace talks have stalled over creation of alternate structures, sparking concerns that a delay could derail success of the process after the parties agreed on eight protocols. The talks, dubbed The Tumaini Initiative, were taking place between the national unity government led by President Salva Kiir on the one hand and the hold-out groups on the other. The holdout groups are a collection of armed and political dissidents who did not sign the 2018 peace agreement. The members of the delegation representing the government at the talks included representatives from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) under President Kiir, members of the South Sudan Opposition Alliance (SSOA) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) a key stakeholder in the September 2018 peace deal. The SPLM-IO, led by the First Vice President Riek Machar, withdrew from the talks, saying the agreement had been drafted in a way that either undermined the current structures created by the 2018 peace deal or ran parallel to it. In a statement, the leader of Real SPLM, Pagan Amum said the negotiations stalled after the armed opposition withdrew from the process, prompting the delegation representing President Kiir and other parties to follow them to Juba for further consultations with constituent organizations and structures. (Sudan Tribune)

Kenya and the Central African Republic have declared new outbreaks of mpox as Africa’s health officials race to contain the spread of the disease in a region lacking vaccines. Nairobi announced the outbreak on Wednesday, after a case was detected in a passenger traveling from Uganda to Rwanda at a border crossing in southern Kenya. The Central African Republic was the first to declare a new outbreak on Monday, saying it extends to its capital of Bangui…Although the mpox epidemics in the West were contained with the help of vaccines and treatments, barely any have been available in parts of Africa where several countries have reported outbreaks in recent months. The worst hit on the continent is Congo, which has recorded more than 12,000 cases and at least 470 deaths this year in its biggest outbreak. South Africa, which last recorded an mpox case in 2022, has also reported an outbreak this year. (AP)