Nigeria

Tales about U.S. hinder polio campaign

An emergency drive to immunize millions of Africans against polio ended with “mixed results” in Nigeria’s heavily Muslim north, where many families heeded some Islamic leaders’ claims that the vaccine was part of a U.S. plot to render them sterile, U.N. officials said Friday.

Organizers had hoped to reach 63 million children during the Monday to Thursday campaign in 10 African nations, said Mohammed Belhocine, World Health Organization representative to Nigeria.

In Nigeria, U.N. officials say polio has been spreading since Muslim religious leaders began telling their followers the vaccines cause infertility or AIDS.

WHO estimates it is achieving 75 to 80 percent immunization coverage everywhere except the Muslim north; it reported no results from that area.

United Nations

Peacekeepers planned for Ivory Coast

The U.N. Security Council on Friday unanimously approved deployment of more than 6,000 U.N. peacekeepers to Ivory Coast and demanded that the government and rebels meet all requirements of a peace deal so presidential elections can take place in 2005.

The United States will not contribute any troops.

The U.N. force will be established April 4 for an initial period of one year.