This was disclosed in a joint press statement by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the World Health Organisation, and the United Nations Children’s Fund made available to our correspondent on Wednesday.

The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine is the first vaccine recommended for use by the World Health Organisation to prevent malaria in children in areas of moderate to high malaria transmission.

“Since 2019, Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi have been delivering the malaria vaccine through the Malaria Vaccine Implementation Programme, coordinated by WHO and funded by Gavi, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and Unitaid.

“The RTS,S/AS01 vaccine has been administered to more than 1.7 million children in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi since 2019 and has been shown to be safe and effective, resulting in a substantial reduction in severe malaria and a fall in child deaths. At least 28 African countries have expressed interest in receiving the malaria vaccine.

“In addition to Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi, the initial 18 million dose allocation will enable nine more countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Niger, Sierra Leone, and Uganda, to introduce the vaccine into their routine immunisation programmes for the first time,” the statement read in part.

The first doses of the vaccine are expected to arrive in countries during the last quarter of 2023, with countries starting to roll them out by early 2024.

It stated that this allocation round makes use of the supply of vaccine doses available to Gavi through UNICEF.

The statement noted that the allocations have been determined through the application of the principles outlined in the framework for allocation of limited malaria vaccine supply that prioritises those doses to areas of highest need, where the risk of malaria illness and death among children are highest.

“This vaccine has the potential to be very impactful in the fight against malaria, and when broadly deployed alongside other interventions, it can prevent tens of thousands of future deaths every year,” said the Managing Director of Country Programmes Delivery at Gavi, Thabani Maphosa.

“While we work with manufacturers to help ramp up supply, we need to make sure the doses that we do have are used as effectively as possible, which means applying all the learnings from our pilot programmes as we broaden out to a new total of 12 countries,” Maphosa added.

Malaria remains one of Africa’s deadliest diseases, killing nearly half a million children each year under the age of five, and accounting for approximately 95 per cent of global malaria cases and 96 per cent of deaths in 2021.

“Nearly every minute, a child under five years old dies of malaria,” said UNICEF Associate Director of Immunisation, Ephrem Lemango. “For a long time, these deaths have been preventable and treatable; but the roll-out of this vaccine will give children, especially in Africa, an even better chance at surviving. As supply increases, we hope even more children can benefit from this life-saving advancement.”

The WHO Director of Immunisation, Vaccines and Biologicals, Dr Kate O’Brien, said the malaria vaccine was a breakthrough to improve child health and child survival; and families and communities.

“This first allocation of malaria vaccine doses are prioritised for children at the highest risk of dying of malaria. The high demand for the vaccine and the strong reach of childhood immunisation will increase equity in access to malaria prevention and save many young lives. We will work tirelessly to increase supply until all children at risk have access,” O’Brien said.

This was contained in a report released on Tuesday, November 23, titled, ‘Children in West and Central Africa among those Who Suffer Highest Rates of Grave Violations in Armed Conflict’.

The organization said over the past five years, the West and Central Africa regions have consistently had some of the highest numbers of UN-verified “grave violations” against children in armed conflict.

It said since 2016, the regions have recorded more than 21,000 children verified by the United Nations (UN) as recruited and used by armed forces and non-state armed groups, and more than 2,200 child victims of sexual violence.

The report reads “More than 3,500 children were abducted and more than 1,500 incidents of attacks on schools and hospitals were recorded. In Nigeria, there have been 25 attacks on schools so far this year, with 1,440 students abducted. Nigerian children continue to suffer the impact of the crisis. A protracted conflict has been raging in northeast Nigeria for 12 years now. Thousands of children in the region have been killed, maimed, abducted, displaced, and experienced multiple violations of their human rights.”

According to the report, Phuong Nguyen, UNICEF chief field officer in Maiduguri, described the situation as “unacceptable”.

Nguyen said “Nigerian children – whether they are the direct targets of violence or collateral victims of conflict – are caught up in the ongoing insecurity we are seeing across the country. This is unacceptable. This important report shows the extent of the grave violations of children’s rights in Nigeria and across the West and Central Africa region – violations that must be ended by all parties to the conflict. Children must have an opportunity to grow, learn, work and contribute to the healthy future of this country. That can only happen if they are protected from violence and the worst impacts of conflict.”

Bhanu Pathak, Chief of Field Office UNICEF Nigeria, Bauchi Field Office, said this at a Youth Talk ceremony organised in commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

He said “Too many Nigerian children and young people are being left behind, especially when it comes to education. Nigeria has the world’s highest number of out-of-school children; more than 10.5 million Nigerian children are not in school. Nigeria also has the second largest number of child brides in the world with 23 million girls and women married as children, and as such, ending their education”.