Routine vaccination campaigns in Sudan in recent years have excluded parts of South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Khartoum said yesterday. This includes vaccinations for the crippling disease polio.
“In South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, an estimated 162,000 children under 5 years living in areas controlled by the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement–North (SPLM-N) have not had access to routine vaccinations since fighting erupted in the areas in 2011, leaving them at risk of contracting easily preventable diseases,” says OCHA.
The UN agency noted that the health risk posed by this failure could affect not only the mentioned areas but could result in diseases spreading to children in other parts of the country.
In 2012, the United Nations, the African Union and the Arab League submitted a proposal to the Government of Sudan and the SPLM-N to vaccinate these children and in April 2013, the UN developed an operational plan for the vaccination campaign.
But the two sides, SPLM-N and the government, could not agree on terms for how to allow access for the health workers into the Two Areas. The SPLM-N claimed the government would use the opportunity to spy on its areas.
Separately, OCHA reported crop failures in Blue Nile’s Kurmuk locality and South Kordofan’s Dallami locality.
File photo: Polio vaccination workers in Yida refugee camp, 2012