Days after the US Military launched an emergency mission to evacuate over 70 US government personnel in Sudan due to fighting between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces, the WHO has just announced there is a “high risk of biological hazard” in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
The bio-hazard warning comes after one of the fighting military factions captured a laboratory which held measles, cholera, and other harmful pathogens.
The WHO’s Nima Saeed Abid stated “This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available.”
Reuters broke the story:
There is a “high risk of biological hazard” in the Sudanese capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, the WHO’s Nima Saeed Abid said technicians were unable to access the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials.
“This is the main concern: no accessibility to the lab technicians to go to the lab and safely contain the biological material and substances available,” he said, declining to specify which side had seized the facility
Fighting erupted between the Sudanese armed forces and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitaries on April 15 and has killed at least 459 people and injured 4,072, according to the WHO’s latest figures.
