Sudan and SPLM-N at odds over children vaccination
May 21, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese government and Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) are at odds over a polio vaccination campaign UN agencies intend to carry out in the rebel controlled areas in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states.
However, the SPLM-N asked the United Nations agencies to conduct this campaign from Ethiopian and Kenya, while the Sudanese government said this operation should be carried out from the Sudanese territory.
Speaking in a teleconference with activists in the United States on Monday, Yasir Arman said they demand that the vaccination campaign be carried out from Ethiopia and Kenya because “we do not have an agreement with the Sudanese government”.
He added that Khartoum has “the idea to bring its security agents into our areas and in any case we do not trust them”.
In the Sudanese capital the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos is conducting a series of meetings with the government official on the humanitarian situation in Darfur and the Two Areas.
Following a meeting with Amos on Tuesday, Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commissioner, Suleiman Abdel Rahman stated that they agreed that the vaccination campaign should be carried out from inside the Sudan.
Suleiman said they share views to not deliver humanitarian assistance or conduct the vaccination campaign from outside the Sudan.
The UN OCHA said this campaign targets children and newborn babies who have not been vaccinated as a result of war that has been going on in South Kordofan and Blue Nile since 2011.
Sudan has recently been declared to be polio free.
“Any new cases in Sudan would be a serious setback not only for Sudan, but for global efforts to eradicate polio”, OCHA pointed out.
(ST).