Sawt Falasteen - From Africa, Blinken presses US to extend AIDS fight mandate

In Lagos, Blinken met doctors at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research, which has been at the forefront of anti-AIDS programmes in Africa's most populous country.

The institute has been supported by PEPFAR, the massive investment in anti-AIDS treatment launched in 2003 that US officials credit with saving 25 million lives, mostly in Africa.

Blinken said that the work of the Nigerian institute, which also assists other African nations, showed the importance of extending PEPFAR "quickly".

"It is literally a matter of saving more lives, changing more lives, dealing once and for all with HIV/AIDS," Blinken told reporters outside the clinic.

Blinken, who also heard about the institute's work against Covid-19, said PEPFAR helps "strengthen public health systems, so that when the next epidemic comes along -- and it will -- we and countries around the world are in a much better place to deal with it quickly and effectively."

"The stakes are real. They couldn't be higher," he said.

Former Republican president George W. Bush, best known internationally for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, considers PEPFAR, which stands for the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, one of his greatest achievements.

The programme until recently has enjoyed near universal support in the US Congress.

But lawmakers have failed formally to renew the programme for another five years due to the hot-button US issue of abortion.

While US law already prohibits taxpayer funding of abortion -- and the Supreme Court in 2022 struck down a constitutional right to abortion -- conservative Republicans want to prohibit all support to groups that counsel on reproductive health, fearing they would promote abortion.

President Joe Biden's Democrats have refused to go along and compromise proposals -- which include authorising PEPFAR for a shorter timeframe or simply restating existing US policy -- have become deadlocked.

Without reauthorisation, PEPFAR will not automatically end, with funding still in the pipeline, but supporters say that health providers and other donor nations need assurances on long-term US commitment.

Q.Najjar--SF-PST