An Afghan mother holds her child before receiving a drop of polio vaccination in Kabul
© AFP/File Massoud Hossaini

GENEVA (AFP) - "Campaigns in the southern region are cancelled," WHO spokeswoman Sona Bari told AFP.

The programme was due to start on September 21 and was intended to reach 1.2 million children aged under five in Afghanistan's southern regions, she said.

Two Afghan doctors working for the WHO were killed in a suicide car bombing in southeastern Afghanistan Sunday that was claimed by the Taliban.

The WHO said that a similar campaign in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman was still likely to go ahead, as were future campaigns in the south in October and November.

©AFP