Sudan launches campaign to vaccinate 4.3 million children against polio

April 30, 2026 (PEN) The Sudanese Federal Ministry of Health announced the launch of a large-scale polio vaccination campaign targeting more than 4.3 million children under the age of five in seven states, in cooperation with the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as part of efforts to contain the outbreak of the mutated virus.

The campaign includes the states of Al Qadarif, Al Jazirah, Kassala, Khartoum, North Kordofan, Sennar and White Nile, and lasts for three days, as the first of two planned rounds, with a special focus on high-risk and conflict-affected areas.

The ministry revealed that about one million children received the vaccine on the first day, Monday, April 27, while health teams continue vaccination operations through field visits and central supervision to ensure access to all targeted children, noting that Thursday represents the end of the current round.

The campaign comes after the detection of type 2 mutated polio virus in December 2025 in the states of Kassala and North Kordofan, amid a decline in routine immunization coverage as a result of the ongoing conflict since April 2023, which has left about 1.5 million children without adequate protection.

In this context, Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim affirmed the government’s commitment to eradicating polio and closing immunity gaps, coinciding with World Immunisation Week 2026, which is being held under the slogan “For every generation, vaccines work.”

For its part, the World Health Organization explained that it is providing technical and operational support for the campaign, while UNICEF announced the provision of 10.9 million vaccine doses.

The organization's representative, Dr. Shibli Sabani, called for ensuring access for health teams to the targeted areas, while the ministry and its partners appealed to parents to vaccinate their children.