Nigeria has made a vital step towards being declared polio free, after marking a year without a recorded case.
It can now be taken off the list of countries where the disease is endemic, if the World Health Organization (WHO) confirms the results.
Nigeria had struggled to contain polio since some northern states imposed a ban on vaccinations in
2003.

The 2003 immunisation ban in
some northern states followed
allegations by some state
governors and religious leaders
in the mainly Muslim north that
vaccines were contaminated by
Western powers to spread
sterility and HIV among Muslims.
Independent tests ordered by
the Nigerian government in 2004
declared that the vaccines were
safe.
But there was still some hostility
in a few areas to vaccination
drives, with violent attacks
against health workers.
The last attack was in 2013
when nine polio vaccinators
were shot dead at health centres
in the northern Nigerian city of
Kano.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries to record cases in 2015.
Global health experts are hoping polio can become only the second human infectious disease
to be eradicated, after smallpox. Nigeria will still have to wait a
further two years without a recorded case to be certified as polio free. Source: www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33650543