Sudan: Burhan Meets with Arab League Delegation

People burn tires in Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)
People burn tires in Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)
TT

Sudan: Burhan Meets with Arab League Delegation

People burn tires in Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)
People burn tires in Khartoum, Sudan, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Marwan Ali)

Sudan's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan met with a delegation of the Arab League, state television reported on Sunday.

Sudan state TV gave no further details.

The Arab League, which has called for Sudanese parties to stick to the democratic transition after the army took over power last month, had said on Saturday that it would send a high-level delegation to Sudan.

The country's protest movement has rejected internationally backed initiatives to return to a power-sharing arrangement with the military after the coup, announcing two days of nationwide strikes starting Sunday.

The movement called for the establishment of a civilian government to lead a transition to democracy.

The Sudanese military seized power Oct. 25, dissolving the transitional administration and arresting dozens of government officials and politicians. The coup has been met with international outcry and massive protests in the streets of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country.



WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
TT

WHO Sends Over 1 Mln Polio Vaccines to Gaza to Protect Children 

Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)
Displaced Palestinians, who fled their houses due to Israeli strikes, look out from a window as they take shelter, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, July 24, 2024. (Reuters)

The World Health Organization is sending more than one million polio vaccines to Gaza to be administered over the coming weeks to prevent children being infected after the virus was detected in sewage samples, its chief said on Friday.

"While no cases of polio have been recorded yet, without immediate action, it is just a matter of time before it reaches the thousands of children who have been left unprotected," Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an opinion piece in Britain's The Guardian newspaper.

He wrote that children under five were most at risk from the viral disease, and especially infants under two since normal vaccination campaigns have been disrupted by more than nine months of conflict.

Poliomyelitis, which is spread mainly through the fecal-oral route, is a highly infectious virus that can invade the nervous system and cause paralysis. Cases of polio have declined by 99% worldwide since 1988 thanks to mass vaccination campaigns and efforts continue to eradicate it completely.

Israel's military said on Sunday it would start offering the polio vaccine to soldiers serving in the Gaza Strip after remnants of the virus were found in test samples in the enclave.

Besides polio, the UN reported last week a widespread increase in cases of Hepatitis A, dysentery and gastroenteritis as sanitary conditions deteriorate in Gaza, with sewage spilling into the streets near some camps for displaced people.