The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Tuesday that biological risks in Sudan are “very high” following the occupation of a national medical laboratory by warring parties.
“Yesterday they called me [segunda-feira] head of the central sanitary laboratory. It is occupied by one of the conflicting parties,” said Nima Saeed Abid, WHO Representative in Sudan, at a press conference in Geneva (Switzerland).
Nima Saeed Abid stressed that the situation is “extremely dangerous” because the laboratory contains samples of measles, cholera and polio pathogens.
According to Nima Saeed Abid, the occupiers “withdrew all the technicians from the laboratory”, which is now completely “under the control of one of the belligerents as a military base.”
Cholera is an acute diarrheal disease that, if left untreated, is fatal within hours.
Measles, for its part, is a highly contagious viral disease, such as polio, that mostly affects children under the age of five.
WHO data show that since the unrest began in Sudan, there have been 14 attacks on the health sector, resulting in eight deaths and two injuries.
“Attacks on health are reprehensible and must stop,” the WHO demanded on Tuesday.
Clashes began in mid-April in Sudan that left 459 people dead and 4,072 injured, the organization said on Tuesday, explaining, however, that the data from the Sudanese health ministry had not been verified by the WHO.
Up to 270,000 people could flee Sudan for Chad and South Sudan, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said after a 72-hour truce between the warring parties under the protection of the United States of America ended. ).
According to Laura Lo Castro, UNHCR representative in Chad, 20,000 refugees have already arrived in this country.
“We expect up to 100,000 refugees in the worst case,” he said during a press conference, which he attended via video link.
In South Sudan, the most likely scenario is the return of 125,000 South Sudanese refugees and 45,000 refugees,” UNHCR South Sudan Representative Marie-Hélène Verneuil said also via video link.
UNHCR data recorded up to this Tuesday reached about 4,000 South Sudanese from Sudan, mostly through the Renk border crossing in Upper Nile State.
UNHCR indicated that there are more than 800,000 refugees from South Sudan in Sudan, a quarter of whom are in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital, and are therefore directly affected by the fighting.