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Sudan

Sudan: Khartoum in call for polio campaign cease-fire days

NAIROBI, 1 November (IRIN) - Sudanese Health Minister of Health Ahmad Bilal Uthman has called for a cease-fire in southern Sudan for five days every month in order to allow the vaccination of children against polio, the daily Al-Ray al-Amm newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Uthman said immunisation teams had recently failed to reach a number of areas due to the war in the south, and that it was essential to have a cease-fire in the south for five days every month to eradicate polio, the report added.

The minister's call for the cease-fire days echoes a United Nations proposal to the government and rebel Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) for cease-fire days to facilitate the polio campaign, articulated by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The necessity to allow broad and secure access to allow polio eradication among Sudanese children was put to both Khartoum and the SPLM/A by UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima when he visited the country in September.

Both the government and SPLM/A had formally agreed on the principle of "unimpeded access" to beneficiaries of humanitarian assistance, yet limitations on access had continued, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan reported to the UN General Assembly in October.

Oshima's request in September was for cease-fire days on the first Monday to Thursday of each month from October to December, plus additional periods for the immunisation days planned for this period, but, as yet, there had been no formal reply from either the government or SPLM/A, according to humanitarian sources.

Holding National Immunisation Days (NIDS) in polio-endemic countries "is critical for the acceleration of eradication efforts", according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), which is spearheading a global initiative to have certified eradication of polio by 2005.

There are some 20 countries where the polio virus is still present, and NIDs are particularly important for 10 countries which are a global priority (comprising Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia in the greater Horn of Africa region, as well Afghanistan, Angola, Bangladesh, the Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Nigeria and Pakistan), according to WHO.

September's request by the UN for cease-fire days to allow access for all areas linked to polio surveillance and response needs followed the difficulties its agencies experienced in following up on a confirmed polio case in Ruweng County in Upper Nile Region/Unity (Wahdah) State in May.

Though inter-agency health teams assessed the child from whom the wild virus was isolated, and several other cases of paralysis in areas under both government and SPLM/A control in Ruweng County - an area of active conflict - insecurity restricted polio investigations and mop-up operations to a limited geographical area.

There were also serious logistical problems to getting staff and equipment into a largely inaccessible area, with few airstrips, in which much of the population moves seasonally in search of water and pasture.

WHO then expressed the need for government clearance for access to additional airstrips, as well as "Days of Tranquillity" negotiated with all sides to the conflict so that immunisation campaigns could be conducted without putting UN and local volunteer staff at undue risk.

Emergency access had been secured on a case-by-case basis for assessments and polio immunisation efforts in particular areas, but the campaign had been hindered by the inability to negotiate free access with the combatants, Kofi Annan reported in October.

It was vital for relief efforts in critical areas of southern Sudan that aid agencies benefit from "an extension of the humanitarian space" and were allowed to operate with minimal security guarantees, his report concluded.

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