A World Health Organization (WHO) official warned on Tuesday that there was a “huge biological risk” in the capital of Sudan after one of the fighting parties took control of a laboratory containing samples of deadly diseases.
Dr. Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO’s representative in Sudan, told a United Nations briefing in Geneva via video link from Port Sudan that the central public health laboratory in Khartoum—which stores disease pathogens for polio, among others—has been seized by armed forces and technicians are unable to secure the hazardous materials after being removed from the building.
