‘Huge biological risk’ after Sudan fighters occupy lab: WHO

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that fighters in conflict-ravaged Sudan had occupied the national public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an “extremely, extremely dangerous” situation.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that fighters in conflict-ravaged Sudan had occupied the national public laboratory holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an "extremely, extremely dangerous" situation.

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," said Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO's representative in Sudan.

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He did not say which of the fighting parties had taken over the laboratory.

Mr. Abid said he had received a call from the head of the national laboratory in Khartoum on Monday, a day before a U.S.-brokered 72-hour ceasefire between Sudan's warring generals officially came into effect after 10 days of urban combat.

"There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab," said Mr. Abid.

He pointed out that the lab held so-called isolates, or samples, of a range of deadly diseases, including measles, polio and cholera.