Lab seizure amid Sudan fighting poses ‘huge biological risk’

The representative for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sudan said fighters have seized a national health facility, calling the lab takeover “extremely, extremely dangerous” for the embattled country.

WHO representative Nima Saeed Abid said during a Tuesday press briefing that one of the warring armies in Sudan forcefully kicked out the lab technicians at the National Public Health Laboratory in the capitol of Khartoum, creating a risk of biological contamination.

“Now it is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base,” Abid said, describing it as a facility housing polio, cholera and measles samples.

“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the [health lab] by one of the fighting parties,” he added.

Fighting broke out earlier this month between the Sudanese Armed Forces and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, engulfing the streets of Khartoum in gunfire and explosions.

Abid did not say which side seized the lab.

Sudan is experiencing a large outbreak of dengue fever and malaria, Abid noted, which makes the military occupation of the health lab all the more dangerous.

U.S. officials on Monday brokered a 72-hour ceasefire between the rival military factions, which orchestrated a joint coup against an autocratic leader in 2021 but splintered during negotiations over a governmental transition.

Hundreds of people have died in the war so far and thousands have been wounded. The WHO said there is an acute shortage of food, medicine, water and fuel.

Many residents of the African nation have also begun fleeing the country. Britain, Germany and France are assisting with evacuations of its own nationals.

The U.S. evacuated embassy staff over the weekend, but up to 16,000 American citizens remain in the country, by some estimates.

Patrick Youssef, the regional director of Africa with the International Committee for the Red Cross, said the ceasefire was “welcome” but warned responders needed a “long-lasting solution.”

“What we need is to create a humanitarian space for our teams,” Youssef said Tuesday at the WHO briefing. “While this ceasefire is important — after the ceasefire and if it holds — we need to be able to also make sure we have a very loud and repeated call for the protection of civilians.”