Darfur Militants Yield to Allow Vaccinations
Rebels opened sections of Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region to allow health workers to vaccinate children younger than 5 years old against polio, the paralyzing illness that reemerged in Africa’s largest country last year in the midst of civil war.
UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Sudanese Health Ministry began a three-day campaign that aimed to inoculate 6 million children against the virus throughout Sudan.
Joanna van Gerpen, UNICEF’s representative in Sudan, said 112 people so far had tested positive for the virus in 17 of the country’s 26 states.
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