there are many many challenges ahead and the big question is which will you ever want to play in his administration as he has said that mortality is not expected to play a crucial role but still he is an influential man loved by many in the country so we'll have to see exactly what happens in the next few months. this is al jazeera these are the top stories u.s. drugs make a pfizer says it's covert 19 banks encountered it has proven to be more than 90 percent effective finds it says it's on track to seek regulatory approval to sell a vaccine by the end of this month president elect joe biden has called on the nation to pull together to help beat coronavirus button's promising a new national pandemic response to control the outbreak and to rebuild the economy once he is sworn in mike hanna has more on biden's speech if we can take one

message away from what joe biden had to say. and the politicize ation of basic health measures with. the most impassioned that we've heard joe biden on that particular issue saying that by wearing a mask you could save the life of somebody packing shelves in a supermarket you could save the lives of one of your children's teachers you could save your own life this was the absolute thrust of what he's saying and that takes particular residence at the moment given the news of a potential vaccine that we've heard in the course of the day joe biden's response to that welcoming congratulating the team who working on the development of this particular vaccine all of this of course while donald trump still refuses to concede defeat his team is preparing legal challenges to some of the counts going on in battleground states that favor joe biden. other world news a new round of talks on libya is underway in tunisia as capital $75.00 libyan

representatives from various groups have been invited by the u.n. which is leading the discussions last month but sides announced a permanent cease fire which has largely held the talks are a way to set the groundwork for possible elections in libya and officials in the disputed region of we're going to say the city of has been taken by forces from azerbaijan those claims had initially been denied thousands of armenians and are fleeing the area and me and miles governing party says it's won enough seats to form a government despite no official announcement from the election commission a vote counting is still going on and national league for democracy party which is led by on sun suchi one a landslide election victory 5 years ago these are in 25 minutes time right now though it's the latest edition of inside story with mohammed.

tension is running high in ethiopia prime minister abbay ahmed is stepping up a military offensive in the northern region of ukraine and he sacked a number of top officials but how far will he go and is there a risk of escalation this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. if the o.p.'s prime minister ahmed has reshuffled his cabinet and top military leadership he sacked the army chief head of intelligence and the foreign minister the central government in addis ababa has launched a military operation in the northern region of to gray the offensive comes after

months of growing tensions between the federal government and to graze governing tea p.l.f. party of a ahmed has accused the t.p. l.f. of attempting to undermine his leadership and move to dissolve its regional government but those integrate say obey him it is not a legitimate leader since he postponed elections this year due to cope with 19 and they say they're being targeted unfairly to graze leaders have called on the african union to intervene to prevent an all out civil war amid says the offensive will in soon when the rebels are brought to justice will bring in our guest in a moment 1st this report from outcome webb in kenya's capital nairobi. the leadership of ethiopia's to gray region aside the federal government has carried out at least 10 airstrikes in recent days a senior general from the federal army said it's intensifying its s. right on selected targets humanitarian workers say they've heard shelling and heavy fighting in the area of the border between the to gray region and the m r

a region where all the communications have been cut off so difficult to get accurate information on what exactly is going on the fighting started last week both sides blame each other for starting it but the conflict has actually been brewing for many months to great leaders dominated ethiopia's politics and its military for almost 3 decades intil prime minister took over 2 years ago to grain leaders a complaint since then they've been unfairly targeted with prosecutions and arrest as part of a crackdown on past rights abuses and corruption if you have you with you to hold nationwide elections in august but they were postponed the government said because of the covert 19 pandemic the to grand leadership didn't accept that and they said a failure to hold an election meant the prime minister of a ahmed and his government were no longer legitimate they went ahead and held their

own regional elections in the to grey region which the federal government didn't acknowledge they didn't accept the results to have a situation where both sides were refusing to accept each other's legitimacy and they stopped communicating now to great demand a militia of about 250000 fighters over a significant part of ethiopia's military including a lot of its tanks and a lot of it artillery was stationed in the to grey region that's because of the past decade long conflict with neighboring eritrea now that the grand leaders say that a big part of that military is called the northern command. the fact to do with thought i'd been sent to government. it's not clear if there have been defections or how many thought in fact they did but it is clear to both sides in this conflict the heavily armed they have think never can forgive and there's a high risk of a bloody and protected civil war.

all right let's bring in our guests all of them joining us today from addis ababa william davis is a senior analyst for ethiopia at the international crisis group mustafa omar is president of somali regional state of ethiopia an executive committee member of the governing prosperity party and mess and is assistant professor of law at addis ababa university school of law a warm welcome to you all william let me start with you what are you hearing about how intense the fighting is currently integrate well it's a little bit hard to get really solid reliable information about that but what we do know is there has been a fairly sustained fighting in the western part of tikrit. that was where. jeff forces were alleged they were attacked the military base and that is where the federal intervention is sense it is a fairly sustained fighting there are reports of sort of tens of casualties and that i'm receiving but i've heard that some people are receiving reports of far

more and then there was a bombardment of federal air strikes by military installations around the capsule mehta late that that was a couple of days ago so that's pretty much an understanding of the situation at the moment must suffer prime minister abbott has replaced his army chief his deputy army chief there's been a new foreign minister and a new federal police commissioner all appointed on sunday what are the reasons for that. this is part of the usual shake up of the permits that has been doing. in the past 2 years not to particular about this but this move this is teach. to position the country for the time we are now in talks which is forcing the rule of law in a part of the country that's was going to look less and bad do you expect that the fighting is going to be intensifying in the coming days and if so how close does

that put the country to all out civil war when the federal government is obviously trying to enforce because as you know dana you get it you got people's aggression progs. in sinai now it's a country front or just as a minister some of dinner or members of the government had issued on our eastland for some of the human rights abuses and the corruption that you quote action that just interest i think is a bust 27 years so it sounded really important. i mean it's prized obviously would have to look at the progress of how things would go in the coming weeks but a mixture say she's going to be very limited and very. often it would be finished a very short time that's. i think what what the government's position is and what's . possible william i want to get your point of view on just how devastating all

this could be for ethiopia and also how the stabilizing could all this be for the horn of africa region. well look at think we need to focus on their here and now. so if you want like entirely understand that from the federal government's perspective as mess in bed said arrest warrants have been issued they're not being complied with the federal government classified to grace government as illegal and there is a federal effort to remove the leadership that's so totally understandable from the federal government's perspective the problem is that there to great leadership has built up a relatively strong security apparatus integrate there also seems to be a problem that some of the federal military stationed integrate is not fully supporting the federal intervention and has sided with its a great leadership and additional fact is that this regional election that the federal government is classified classified as illegal and that is led to the

attempt to remove the take race leadership that seems to be supported by a large number of the 6000000 to grant people who while though they may well not they may well have massive problems with aspects of the leadership they seem to support them on this core point so the issue is how easy is it going to be to carry out this law enforcement operation many of us are concerned this is not going to be a quick victory and it's going to if there is a victory for the federal government it's going to come at huge cost and in terms of human lives and displaced people that seems to be a likely prospect of course if that does materialize it will really stretch the ethiopian armed forces which is somewhat spits over this it will weaken ethiopia's government it will therefore embolden opponents elsewhere in ethiopia and we could lead to a sort of escalating crisis of the across the country and to get your question if the ethiopian state is significantly destabilized it of course that will have

a massive impact on the horn of africa because ethiopia is a country of 110000000 people and is it is the absolute linchpin country in the. mustapha you heard william there talk about the fact that there is concern in some quarters that there could be perhaps a fracturing of the military in the north i'm curious to know what your response is to that and also your response to what william said when he when he said that he believes that this is a conflict that could drag on when i don't share the williams. points about the northern coal mine siting with the with that we don't keep a list there's no evidence for that in fact on the contrary what we know is that the not an old mind has been attacked by the. police special police so you would wonder why would you attack a command that is taking orders from you so definitely not on the same level and

that's what we know is that the t.t.l. of policies and national security threats and absolutely there was no other way other than conducting a low cement operation now the fact that that new drug will not drag on does not invalidate all that legitimize the move by the time you stand for the government because what you're watching it watching the detail of who into. the hall today on people found some would amount to a dereliction of duty and also without the country but into a violent civil war so rather than saving this as the. chill for a civil war it should actually be perceived as as an attempt to up there to see what we call the keep a lot to be working on dismantling the country once it's lost power mess in bed i

want to get your perspective just how strong are degrees security forces i mean are we talking about paramilitary forces are we talking about militias how well trained are they and how big are their numbers. 70 grams of s. and i think i'm not going to say i mean if i got it but we can speak about the more you know the just. and you know the to the federal government would be better for it to stop it i think in force because you know for the past 25 or 70 years that it was in a highly corrupt and rationalized executive any less than a society and the benefit of the economy and the political benefits went to a very small clique of the you get it and i think we have a much. you know create i mean my own brand of ford for 17 years and it's very breaks my heart when i speak since if you look at hearings for people like most

about 100100 people kind of government a national unity corporation rather than division the spirit that the 2 philip had created you know the political competition that they had was to consorted power to divide the state by ethnicity and religion and as a. fix it identity and it does not really any political to reach that race the way i. can that this is that this was embedded into small so what i.b.m. of tried to bring was a kind of he was a more every consolatory kind of political figure so the i have never seen in the political history of your dad where 1000000 people i discovered i didn't went out without any court supported government program largely because 2 people. the political division in the country and it kind of to get into comedy central you know puts kind of vision that any other country to the 100 we thought is political problems has brought so when when when we don't face you know she's just trying to

tally many to dance of course might feel sympathetic to get it because of the historical factors obviously of coming to party and if you think of for that matter very difficult to act and then as you might you know william. this is all very complicated it's a complicated situation so i want to i want to take a step back and talk specifically about the tigre a region for a moment or to. the to great people make up about 6 percent of ethiopia's population but for about 3 decades they've wielded enormous power they've had outsized influence how did they obtain such influence and how much did that influence really start to wane when mr abbay came to power well decrees ruling party began as a rebel group in the 1970 and they essentially is spearhead is. a rebel alliance that overthrew a military regime in 1009. 150 p. and f.

was the dominant power when egypt at state was reconstituted in the 1990 s. they devised what instrumental in devising the federal system the multinational ethnic that will system and the message that was describing and that mess and bet and many other egypt ins oppose and then the teacher have formed the core of the of the ruling coalition that governed. for that 3 decade period and so that's you know that's the key to that's why that is such a prominent force in egypt imposes most stuff what has the reaction been from the prime minister with regard to calls for mediation calls for deescalation by the un and by others were what does the prime minister think when it comes to that. well that has demonstrated he's ready just for dialogue and for moderation all along in the last 100 years when the t.t.l.

of who was violet's in every norm of the political system in utah when they were violating the constitution we're doing going along with the election this year has been illustrated and i'm missing i'm missing lidless of patience to an extent where he's done it's got allies like myself have at times. seriously disconcerted with the level of patience shown for that however dialogue. it cannot replace the they didn't need to enforce the rule of law in the country without which there can be no country nor sense of respecting country can allow. people of whom to. take 6000000 people hostage to conduct sham election in which the eucharist exactly when 100 percent to completely. to take. any

orders from the central government as per the constitution and therefore the prime minister has already shown he's witnessed he has also exhausted all. can't live through solution. by sending by engaging continuously i think the course for their looks should have come with the detail of. optimally flaunting the laws of the country now it's about enforcing the rule of law and there's no going back on that. the detail of has chosen has chosen cotton kitchen over dialogue and then the upset is today is not matched by what they're going to get out some of their senior year she's been boasting about having. that can go up to 700 kilometers to strike if you can cut talent other talents will have you seen

. leadership. that is attacked at a country which they are threatening to strike with me sites and now you have seen that the former prime minister former. foreign minister wants to see less than one thing really drawing parallels between ethiopia and shia yemen somehow. giving the impression that levy and yemen out when it comes to fall now this is unacceptable and then thought of not only the prime minister but the entire federal government and the ruling party. exhausted all options we understand international dialogue it's welcome but that cannot substitute for their for their mandate to enforce the rule of law and to keep the country to get a mess in but i saw you nodding to someone must suffer was saying so i want to get your reaction but i also want to ask you about the same point i mean do you think it can get to a stage where there is perhaps a truce and if that happens if the escalation efforts work what comes next and

national dialogue what are the steps that need to be taken to ensure that it continues to deescalate. thank you when i think the. president will stop i say it is an important thing i think and i genista if the preconditions for the bible say that of must be dismissed but the problem is you know for international jobs overseas they seem to forget the political history of this to get it you know in 1900 when it depicts a correspondent asked one general to go to their ideology general responded by saying that it will albanian community over the past 2730 years this party has not made in major ideological shift in time to reorient itself to the 21st century critical thinking so it's really very difficult to force a prime minister for the 1st piece and he has been extremely patient i have to say and as president was done i say some of us are in fact critical not for we're doing

what but actually for the extinction because somebody it few people that have control or state power forth far too long and you know if measures have been taken much heavier things wouldn't have been i think as much as we expect them not to be so the hope is that the only hope i have is that if at some point i think i would believe that even within that you get in a different homeless according to the forces that want to minimize damage and think about the poorest country to country if sadly to $7020.00 was under some of the individuals was out it's what i'd have been issued by the federal government such as a former intelligence chief is actually said by another student obviously that would lead to a more civil court is going sentiment of course jumping has much greater importance for problems this is not to undermine that but what exactly were brought was at 0 was a space at least for dad every political party and out of

a group that was abroad has come in the country to have to opt for a meaningful peaceful past and. have data was and was in the governing that you get it has rejected that that's very tragic and you know my hope is when we send preconditions that will be said by the federal government hopefully. this crisis will be continued much everywhere and it's what i said i think the distance what was that was created rights not wanted to get it but you got it you said for the past 27 years was if. it was a very initialised state structure i'm saying i'll have 6 touch of that commission i say so you know the job as a very very anxious country was a very proud history that's difficult and that isn't the only african country and if you go to asia probably tired i would be one country that has that and you know so given given the speech is free of togetherness and cooperation i think that spirit would come out stronger even with you know to have discussions to come next

in the next so that's that's what keeps me on optimist i think but it took us a lot of william i also want to delve into the humanitarian impact of this conflict i mean the un says that 9000000 people risk displacement if things continue to deteriorate in the tigre a region of course things were dire for many i believe over 100000 people who are already displaced in that region before this conflict began so how concerned are you about how bad things could get on the humanitarian front. well i don't think there is much that i need to add to those u.n. for carts the issue is that as i've described this seems to be something of a balance of power in this conflict therefore whether like president moustapha you are following a law enforcement approach here and that there is

a need to rule of the restore the rule of law or whether like mess and bets and you are disgusted at the t.p. left as a political entity and the federal state that it created regardless of those positions the issue here is what is the balance of power and therefore how long is this conflict likely to last the u.n. obviously expects this conflict to last a long time therefore there is no quick swift no enforcement operation i would also add that if people want to remake ethiopia's constitutional order the way to do that is through a national dialogue process or a similar political process trying to remake the constitutional order by destroying ethno nationalist entities is more likely to lead to egypt is fragmentation than its reform into the sort of constitutional arrangement that messam bet is talking

about at the moment as i said the conflict is concentrated in west to great it appears that the ambition is to cut off the great supply route that is an understandable military objective but it clearly threatens to cause mass suffer and amongst a great 6000000 people and others if the conflict spreads the issue here is not about the objectives and it is not about the objections to the t.p. left it is about what is the best way of resolving this political crisis in a manner that does not cause absolute devastation for the 40 great the to grant people 'd and also potentially ethiopia and the broader region. all right we've run out of times we're going to have to leave it there thanks so much to all our guests william davis and mustafa omar and messing about. and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website of 0 dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash

a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story from emergency room in the whole team here bye for now.

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is there. these men are survivors of a covert 9046 year old is a limousine driver he's the only one here who needed to go to hospital when he became ill in early march and we think it will go. through some balance board in november so deep is a 34 year old driver of the tare family and he tested positive for years but it will always. be health officials say the rate of new infections has slowed the goal here is to conduct a broad serving to better understand transmission and asymptomatic cases which in turn could help policy decisions in the future so it would be easy for us to inform the decision making on what to do next the goal now is to increase testing and contact tracing. the government provides free testing and medical treatment for

those who need it while campaigns to raise awareness continue. this is 0. it is just going to 1800 hours g.m.t. hello i'm come all santa maria welcome to the news hour from al-jazeera u.s. president elect joe biden is spelt out his plan to fight covert 19 after meeting his task force for the pandemic. this group will bars on detailed plans built on a bedrock of songs and we keep compassion empathy and care for every american at its core.