The Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health Childhood earlier this week successfully dispatched childhood vaccines to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur State, after a year of interrupted deliveries due to the ongoing war between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Hafiz Mohamed Noor, the Director of the Emergency and Epidemic Control Department at the state health ministry, revealed to Radio Tamazuj Wednesday that the vaccines they received will last three months. He said the consignment has all types of vaccines for children including those for polio, pentavalent, pneumococcal, measles, tetanus, diphtheria, meningitis, yellow fever, and COVID-19.

"After the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the vaccines will reach all vaccination centers in the state,” he stated. “There are efforts from the Immunization Department to conduct additional campaigns to bridge the gap resulting from the interruption of vaccination in the recent past.”

Mohamed explained that the interruption in vaccines supplies to the state since the beginning of the war on 15 April 2023 led to the emergence of epidemic cases among children in the state, including measles and pertussis. He emphasized that all childhood diseases can only be prevented using their specific vaccines.

“All children born in the state during the war have not received their vaccination doses to protect them from childhood diseases,” he said.

The health official praised the Federal Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, and UNICEF for delivering the vaccines to the state.