UN: Polio vaccination campaign in Sudan has failed
"We, the international community, have failed the people of South Kordofan and Blue Nile. The opportunity to vaccinate the 165,000 children in these states has faded," the UN Director of the Operation Division told during a press conference on 11 November.
The Sudanese government and the rebel faction Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) failed to agree on a ceasefire during the two-week vaccination campaign scheduled to start on 5 November. The UN Security Council was unable to pass its resolution calling for unfettered humanitarian access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile. Director John Ging: “Once again we don’t have any access at all."
Ging said "We are ready. If there's a green light, we can be there in a day."
Delayed vaccination campaign
The Security Council is currently working to consider a way to enable a delayed polio campaign in Sudan to go ahead. China's UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi said that the vaccination campaign which “cannot be carried out at this point” is a concern for the UN. “It is an issue that bears on the well-being of children. So we do hope that the conditions will be there so that this polio vaccination campaign can go ahead.”
Last month, the UN Security Council expressed alarm at the imminent threat of the spread of polio through South Kordofan and Blue Nile. For the past 18 months, the UN had been unable to get humanitarian aid to 800,000 people in Blue Nile and South Kordofan because of similar war-issues, according to John Ging.
Hostilities continue
The government of Sudan declared a cessation of hostilities from 1 to 12 November in Blue Nile and South Kordofan. The SPLM-N, however, rejected the unilateral declaration and demanded a negotiated agreement with Sudan brokered by the African Union (AU).
There was no sign of ceased hostilities when the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on 11 November reportedly bombed the Abu Leila area of the Umm Dorain locality in South Kordofan. Two citizens were injured.
File photo: vaccination in Darfur against the meningitis. Photo by Albert González Farran/Unamid
Related:
SAF bombing wounds two citizens in South Kordofan (11 November 2013)