Yemen's President, STC Announce New Power-Sharing Government

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi attends the Arab summit in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019. (Reuters)
Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi attends the Arab summit in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019. (Reuters)
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Yemen's President, STC Announce New Power-Sharing Government

Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi attends the Arab summit in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019. (Reuters)
Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi attends the Arab summit in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019. (Reuters)

The Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen announced on Friday a new power-sharing cabinet that would include Southern Transitional Council (STC) members in the legitimate government.

The government of President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi is based in the southern port of Aden.

Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik was reappointed to head the new cabinet, which includes five ministers from Yemen’s biggest political blocs, including the STC and Islah party, a statement from Hadi’s office said.

Hadi has kept his closest allies in the key ministries of defense, interior, foreign affairs and finances.

The new government followed two weeks of separation of forces and redeployment of troops in the south that would see their return to battlefronts with the Iran-backed Houthi militias in the north and to outside Aden, the heavily disputed port city.

The announcement of the government is part of the Riyadh Agreement that was reached last year.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.