UN says Sudan armed groups heeding polio vaccination truce
KHARTOUM, Jan 17 (AFP) — A nationwide ceasefire in Sudan, called for by the United Nations to enable a polio vaccination campaign, is holding so far, UN envoy Jan Pronk said, urging the warring factions to maintain the truce.
“I am pleased that all Sudanese parties, including in Darfur, have responded favourably to the appeal I made to observe days of tranquility during the campaign,” Pronk said.
“I am satisfied that they all kept their promises and I would like to thank them for their cooperation and call upon them to respect fully the ceasefire agreements in order to allow for completion of the campaign.”
UN officials said that the innoculations, conducted as part of Africa-wide efforts against polio, had been “exceptionally successful” and reached more than 5 million children under five out of some 5.9 million targeted.
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the children’s agency UNICEF carried out the bulk of the campaign from January 10-12, but vaccinations were extended until Monday in North Darfur State.
Children in rebel-held areas of southern Sudan will be innoculated in a four-day campaign running until Thursday, the officials added.
Further campaigns are planned for February and April.
A January 9 peace agreement between the Khartoum government and southern rebels of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army sealed an end to 21 years of conflict in the south, but uprisings by ethnic minority rebels continue in the western region of Darfur and in the east along the border with Eritrea.
Sudan was one of eight African countries to agree to carry out mass immunisations against polio, amid a resurgence of the disease despite UN efforts to eradicate it by the year 2000.
Polio cases in Sudan leapt from zero to 112 in a nine-month period of 2004, according to WHO figures.
About 85 percent (1,037) of the 1,185 cases recorded worldwide last year occurred in an area of Africa stretching from Nigeria to Sudan. There were 784 polio cases in the world in 2003.
The other African countries targeted in the UN immunisation programme are the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Niger and Nigeria.