Over 2000 children under 5 years old are cut off from a measles vaccination campaign in some areas of Western Bahr El Ghazal state. The vaccination campaign is organized by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the State Ministry of Health.
According to Dr. Yasser Mohamed Biajo of Raja Civil Hospital, the MSF team and the county medical personnel could not deliver measles vaccinations to over 2000 children in Timsah, Sir Malanga and Frika due to heavy rain that has made travel by land impossible.
The Boro River and many other small streams have cut off the mentioned areas. Dr. Biajo appealed to UN agencies and UNMISS to assist them with a helicopter to deliver the vaccinations to the children of those areas. He noted though that children in accessible areas of the county are getting measles vaccinations.
Peter Nanebo, director of the county Relief and Rehabilitation Commission, in an interview with Radio Tamazuj in Raja, said that refugees from Kafia Kingi are now found in Timsah and Sir Malaga since fighting broke out in border areas. He pointed out that many of the people there are in bad humanitarian need and the roads leading there are not accessible due to the rainy season. Goods from Raja town cannot be delivered there.
Musa Abubakr, a chief from the area visiting Raja town, told Radio Tamazuj that his people are in need of immediate humanitarian help from the NGOs and the government of the state. Travel to the mentioned areas is only possible by motorbike or donkey, but not by car until the dry season.
(By Godfrey Victor Bulla)