Sudan: WHO warns of "biological risks" after the occupation of a laboratory by belligerents

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: AFP 16:40 p.m., April 25, 2023, modified at 16:41 p.m., April 25, 2023

Biological risks are "very high" in Sudan after the occupation of a national health laboratory by belligerents, warned Tuesday the World Health Organization (WHO). "I received a phone call yesterday from the head of the central public health laboratory. It is occupied by one of the fighting parties," WHO Representative in Sudan Dr Nima Saeed Abid told a news conference in Geneva.

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An extremely dangerous situation

"They removed all the technicians from the laboratory which is now completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base," he added. He stressed that the situation is "extremely dangerous" because the laboratory contains samples of measles, cholera and polio pathogens. This occupation therefore presents a "huge biological risk", he insisted. Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal disease, which can die within hours if left untreated. Measles is a highly contagious viral disease, as is polio, which largely affects children under the age of 5. WHO has so far verified 14 attacks on the health sector in Sudan since the beginning of the violence, resulting in 8 deaths and 2 injuries.

"Attacks on health care are reprehensible and must stop," the organization said. Clashes that broke out in mid-April in Sudan have already left 459 dead and 4,072 wounded, the WHO also said Tuesday, while specifying that these were figures from the Sudanese Ministry of Health that the organization had not been able to verify. Up to 270,000 people could flee from Sudan, Chad and South Sudan, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said, after a 72-hour ceasefire was reached between the warring parties under the auspices of the United States.

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"100,000 refugees in the worst case"

According to Laura lo Castro, UNHCR's representative in Chad, 20,000 refugees have arrived in the country. "We expect up to 100,000 refugees in the worst case," she said during the press briefing, by videoconference. "In South Sudan, the most likely scenario is 125,000 returns of South Sudanese refugees and 45,000 refugees," UNHCR Representative in South Sudan Marie-Hélène Verney said online. To date, UNHCR has recorded the arrival of nearly 4,000 South Sudanese from Sudan, mainly via the Renk border crossing in Upper Nile state. There are more than 800,000 South Sudanese refugees in Sudan, a quarter of whom are in Khartoum and are therefore directly affected by the fighting, according to the UN agency.