The US and the Afghan Taliban have made "significant progress" in talks aimed at ending the 17-year-old conflict in Afghanistan, the US envoy has said. In a series of tweets, Zalmay Khalilzad did not give details but said the unprecedented six days of talks in Qatar were "more productive than they have been in the past". He said he was on his way to Kabul to consult Afghan government officials. Earlier, Taliban sources said the two sides had finalised a draft agreement. The deal calls for a withdrawal of foreign forces in return for assurances that al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) group will not be allowed to use Afghanistan as a base, the sources said. Mr Khalilzad said talks with the Taliban would continue and that nothing had been finalised. Skip Twitter post by @US4AfghanPeace Report End of Twitter post by @US4AfghanPeace The Taliban has so far refused to hold direct talks with Afghan officials, whom they dismiss as "puppets". They
The Federal Government says it has released N163 billion to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund)
Sen. Chris Ngige, Minister of Labour and Employment, said this while addressing newsmen after a closed-door reconciliatory meeting with ASUU leadership on Monday in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the striking lecturers had embarked on strike on Nov. 5, 2018, to press home their demands.
ASUU demands included some areas of understanding in the implementation of the Memorandum of Action agreed to in 2017.
Some of these areas include shortfall in salaries of some Federal Universities’ workers and lecturers, earned allowances, revitalisation that were part of the 2009 agreement, among others.
According to Ngige, “today we have agreed to fund revitalisation.
“Government has released about N163 billion from TETFund account to universities.
“So, we have gotten some substantial agreement in most of the areas of the agreement.”
“Most of the issues have being resolved, so they are going to go back to their members and present government’s offer to their council,‘’ he said.
Ngige also said that the striking lecturers were not asking for N50 billion before they would call off the strike.
He, however, added that if the total amount of the union’s demand was aggregated it would be more than the N50 billion as the government was paying in different compartments.
“These are debts of 2009, owed by the past administration, that is 2009 to 2012, so it is not our own debt and we have been doing a lot to settle these debts.
“So, we will be reconvening at the instance of ASUU, they said they want to go and consult with their members and they cannot call off the strike without consulting with their members,’’ he said.
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