The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday of a "significant biological hazard" in the Sudanese capital Khartoum, after one of the parties to the fighting in the country took control of a public health laboratory containing measles, cholera and other dangerous substances.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva via videoconference, Nima Said Abed, the organization's representative in Sudan, said that the organization's technical experts were unable to enter the national public health laboratory to secure dangerous materials.
He told reporters via video link from Sudan that the laboratory is now completely under the control of a group of fighters who use it as a military base, after they removed all the technicians from it.
"What is of primary concern to us is the inability of technicians to go to the laboratory and safely contain biological and other materials," he said, but declined to say who controlled the facility.
The Public Health Organization (PWHO) has confirmed that it has documented 14 attacks on the health sector since the fighting began on April 15, killing eight people and injuring two.
According to the World Health Organization, fighting between the Sudanese army and the RSF killed at least 459 people and injured 4072,<> others.
The clashes have paralyzed hospitals and other essential services and stranded many who have been stranded in their homes as food and water supplies dwindle.
A spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) confirmed on Tuesday that the office had been forced to scale back some of its activities in parts of Sudan due to heavy fighting.
At least five aid workers have died in Sudan since the fighting broke out, and the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) suspended their activities after their staff were killed.