The United Nations children’s agency announced a campaign Sunday to vaccinate more than half a million children against polio in Sudan’s war-torn Darfur region.
Supply chains for vaccines and other vital medicines collapsed after war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Efforts by the country’s central government to deliver supplies to Darfur have been largely unsuccessful, with most of the region now outside its control.
In a statement on the social media platform X, UNICEF said vaccination teams “this week will immunize more than 500,000 children under the age of five with the oral polio vaccine in Central and West Darfur.”
The agency said this is the second round of its polio vaccination campaign, adding that “every dose is a shield protecting children from a preventable and life-threatening disease.”
On Aug. 26, UNICEF delivered 5.8 million doses of the oral polio vaccine to a center in El Geneina, West Darfur, intended to protect 2.3 million children under five across 65 districts.
Central and North Darfur have been experiencing outbreaks of childhood diseases, particularly measles, prompting urgent calls from aid groups for regular vaccination campaigns.
On July 15, UNICEF and the World Health Organization warned that Sudanese children were at heightened risk of deadly diseases after routine vaccination coverage dropped to its lowest level in four decades.