Citizens ‘travel for 4 days’ for vaccination

A large number of citizens from For Baranga locality, West Darfur, are travelling for four days to Central Darfur to get vaccinated against yellow fever, sources told Radio Dabanga. On Friday, 30 November, they said that two people died of yellow fever, and that one of the victims belonged to the Sudanese Central Reserve Forces (known as Abu Tira). For Baranga residents reportedly began their journey on Tuesday to an area called Injockoti in Central Darfur.They asserted that West Darfur authorities are ‘only vaccinating security services, military and police’, while officially claiming that there are no cases of yellow fever in the locality. Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that schools, government institutions and markets in For Baranga are virtually deserted, as everyone is leaving the locality on daily basis to Central Darfur. Some of them travel by foot, while others on the backs of donkeys, carts and vehicles, they added. Minister denies campaign Ishaq Ahmed Yaqoub, minister of health of West Darfur, denied that his office is carrying any vaccination campaign in the locality of For Baranga. He told Radio Dabanga that ‘there could be agencies or organizations’ carrying out the vaccinations, but ‘not the ministry’. Yaqoub announced that the campaign will be launched on Sunday in For Baranga locality, once the ministry completed all preparations for it. The minister revealed to Radio Dabanga that three cases of yellow fever have been confirmed in the locality, while the other reported cases are still being further examined. According to Yaqoub, 182 people were diagnosed with yellow fever and 49 have died by Friday in West Darfur.He appealed to authorities from the four most affected localities to speed up the vaccination campaign.Radio Dabanga file photoRelated:State health ministers: ‘incidence of yellow fever stabilized’ (25 November 2012)Vaccination campaigns begin in Darfur (23 November 2012)