Senior aid worker issues warning over armed seizure of Khartoum lab containing deadly diseases
The UN secretary general, António Guterres, has said the fighting could “engulf the whole region and beyond”. “We must all do everything within our power to pull Sudan back from the edge of the abyss,” Guterres said on Monday.
An accountant living in El Geteina, on the border with Chad, said hospitals were closed due to a lack of medicine. “Now the number of the killed and injured people is unknown,” said Issmat Brahim. “I believe they are dozens if not hundreds, and the death toll will increase.” Fighters “kicked out all the technicians from the lab … which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” Abid said, declining to specify which warring side had seized the facility. “There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab. 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.
The UN humanitarian office , which coordinates relief efforts, has been forced to cut back on some of its activities due to the violence. At least five aid workers have been killed since fighting broke out, and the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Programme have suspended some activities after losing staff.
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