Biohazard risk in Sudan as warring faction seizes lab

Biohazard risk in Sudan as warring faction seizes lab – WHO

RT

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned of a potential biological hazard in Sudan on Tuesday, describing an armed faction’s seizure of a laboratory holding samples of pathogens including polio and measles as an “extremely dangerous” situation.

“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab... by one of the fighting parties,” Nima Saeed Abid, WHO representative in Sudan, told reporters in Geneva via video link. He said technicians have been thrown out with “no accessibility” to the lab, and no way to “safely contain the biological material and substances available.”

Nima said at least 459 people have been killed and 4,072 injured in the fighting that broke out on April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The country’s capital, Khartoum, and nearby towns have been gripped by nearly two weeks of intense bombardment, causing severe food, water, medicine, and fuel shortages. Doctors Without Borders’ Operational Manager for Sudan, Abdalla Hussein, told RT on Friday that hospitals in Khartoum and surrounding cities have closed due to “heavy shelling.”

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