WHO warns of 'biological hazard' in Sudan as warring parties seize lab containing measles, cholera

The World Health Organisation has warned of the “high risk of biological hazard” in Sudan’s capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a national laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and ejected the technicians.

The fighting in Sudan has eased overnight after the country’s army and a rival paramilitary force agreed to a three-day truce, allowing more Sudanese to flee on Tuesday and foreign countries to extract citizens.

Many countries have successfully evacuated their citizens from war-torn Sudan after several attacks on diplomats, including the killing of an Egyptian attache shot on his way to work. Some countries are also extracting their private citizens.

On Tuesday, Britain launched a large-scale evacuation of its nationals on military flights from an airfield north of Khartoum. France and Germany said they had each evacuated more than 500 people of various nationalities, and that a French commando had been hit by crossfire during the operation.

Sudanese families too used the lull to emerge from their homes after more than a week of fierce fighting to search for transport to take them to safety, worrying that the exodus of foreigners would leave locals more at risk.

“Maybe the hardest moment is thinking about leaving the country,” said Intisar Mohammed El Haj, a resident of Khartoum who said her children had hidden under beds from the sound of explosions before the family fled to Egypt.

Tens of thousands have left in the past few days for neighbouring Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Sudan, despite the uncertainty of conditions there.

The situation for those remaining in Africa’s third-largest country, where a third of the 46 million people needed aid even before the violence, is deteriorating fast. Some expressed dismay at the departure of some international aid agencies and diplomats.

The United Nations humanitarian office said on Tuesday it had cut back activities due to the fighting.

With inputs from Reuters

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