In this April 24, 2013 file photo, a Somali baby receives a polio vaccine at the Medina Maternal Child Health centre in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The announcement by the African Regional Certification Commission for Polio Eradication comes after no cases have been reported for four years. Polio once paralysed some 75,000 children a year across Africa. The final push to combat the wild poliovirus focused largely on northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram terror group has carried out a deadly insurgency for more than a decade. Health workers at times carried out vaccinations on the margins of the insecurity, putting their lives at risk.
Health authorities have warned that the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted vaccination work in many countries across Africa, leaving more children vulnerable to infection.