WHO in Sudan says polio campaign in Darfur and elsewhere went well
CAIRO, Egypt, Jan 13, 2005 (AP) — Gunmen robbed and blocked health workers in one district of Darfur, but the campaign to vaccinate millions of Sudanese children against polio was otherwise successful, reaching more than 95 percent of the target, a World Health Organization official said Thursday.
The three-day campaign began Monday after intermediaries negotiated a truce between the rebels and the government and pro-government militia in Darfur, a huge region in western Sudan where a rebellion broke out nearly two years ago.
The WHO polio co-ordinator for Sudan, Dr. Salah Salim Haithami, said that according to preliminary reports the campaign went well in all states of Sudan.
He said the numbers of children vaccinated had not yet been added up, but “95 percent or more” of the targeted children appear to have received the vaccine.
The campaign aimed to immunize 6 million children under 5 years of age across Sudan except in the southern areas controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The campaign was run by the government’s Health Ministry, the World Health Organization and the United Nations children fund, UNICEF.
A comprehensive peace treaty was signed by the government and SPLA on Sunday, and a campaign to immunize the 1.9 million children in the SPLA-controlled parts of southern Sudan is scheduled to begin on Jan. 17.
There was only one case where the cease-fire in Darfur did not hold, Haithami said in a telephone interview from Port Sudan in the eastern Red Sea state.
In the south Darfur district of Buram on Monday, “some armed groups prevented some (campaign) teams from vaccinating and they looted the money of the supervisors,” Haithami said.
He said the gunmen appeared to be rebels, but he did not know which group they belonged to. They stole 200,000 Sudanese dinars (about US$800, euro 600), but they did not harm any member of the vaccination teams, Haithami said.
He said the United Nations and African Union were trying to negotiate a safe passage for the teams to return to Buram. The African Union has cease-fire monitors and protection troops in Darfur.
Polio, a paralyzing illness, re-emerged in Sudan last year after having been eradicated in 2001. U.N. officials say 112 people have so far tested positive for polio in the country, Africa’s largest. Most cases were reported in the capital, Khartoum, Red Sea state and Darfur.
The polio strain found in Sudan has been traced to Nigeria. Nigerians cross Sudan on their way to Saudi Arabia for the Islamic pilgrimage. U.N. officials say the conflict in Darfur would have contributed to the outbreak as it has displaced more than 2 million people, making health care precarious.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 as a rebellion by members of African ethnic groups against what they saw as discrimination and long neglect by the Arab government in Khartoum. The government launched a counter-insurgency in which a pro-government Arab militia, the Janjaweed, attacked, looted and burned the villages of people of African origin.