NPHCDA Confirms Use of Soldiers to Escort Vaccination Teams in Insecurity-Hit Northern Communities
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has confirmed that soldiers are now escorting vaccination teams into communities heavily affected by insurgency and banditry across northern Nigeria. Speaking in Abuja, Director of Disease and Immunisation Rufai Ahmed revealed that military support is being used in “real difficult areas” to ensure child immunisation continues despite insecurity. He noted that over 202,000 children in Kebbi and Bayelsa have received the R21 malaria vaccine since December 2024, while Nigeria still has about 2.1 million zero-dose children, mostly in conflict-hit northern states. The agency says it has tracked and vaccinated more than 500,000 previously unreached children and recruited thousands of frontline workers, many serving in militarised zones. Officials insist they will continue pushing vaccination into remote and dangerous communities, even if it requires military escorts, to prevent children from dying of vaccine-preventable diseases.
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has confirmed that soldiers are now escorting vaccination teams into communities heavily affected by insurgency and banditry across northern Nigeria. Speaking in Abuja, Director of Disease and Immunisation Rufai Ahmed revealed that military support is being used in “real difficult areas” to ensure child immunisation continues despite insecurity. He noted that over 202,000 children in Kebbi and Bayelsa have received the R21 malaria vaccine since December 2024, while Nigeria still has about 2.1 million zero-dose children, mostly in conflict-hit northern states. The agency says it has tracked and vaccinated more than 500,000 previously unreached children and recruited thousands of frontline workers, many serving in militarised zones. Officials insist they will continue pushing vaccination into remote and dangerous communities, even if it requires military escorts, to prevent children from dying of vaccine-preventable diseases.
NPHCDA Confirms Use of Soldiers to Escort Vaccination Teams in Insecurity-Hit Northern Communities
The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has confirmed that soldiers are now escorting vaccination teams into communities heavily affected by insurgency and banditry across northern Nigeria. Speaking in Abuja, Director of Disease and Immunisation Rufai Ahmed revealed that military support is being used in “real difficult areas” to ensure child immunisation continues despite insecurity. He noted that over 202,000 children in Kebbi and Bayelsa have received the R21 malaria vaccine since December 2024, while Nigeria still has about 2.1 million zero-dose children, mostly in conflict-hit northern states. The agency says it has tracked and vaccinated more than 500,000 previously unreached children and recruited thousands of frontline workers, many serving in militarised zones. Officials insist they will continue pushing vaccination into remote and dangerous communities, even if it requires military escorts, to prevent children from dying of vaccine-preventable diseases.
