WHO warns of high biological hazard in Sudan

A “high risk of biological hazard” threatens Khartoum after one of Sudan's warring parties seized a laboratory holding measles and cholera pathogens and other hazardous materials, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

Technicians were unable to access the National Public Health Laboratory to secure the materials, the WHO's Nima Saeed Abid said from Geneva. The WHO did not say which side had seized the laboratory.

Fighting between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out on April 15, turning residential areas into war zones. At least 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded.

More gunfire, explosions and warplanes flying overhead were reported on Tuesday after the start of a US and Saudi-brokered 72-hour ceasefire. Access to water, power and food has been cut in a nation already reliant on aid.

The UN's humanitarian office, OCHA, has been forced to cut back on some of its activities in parts of Sudan due to intense fighting. At least five aid workers have been killed since fighting broke out and the two UN agencies who lost staff, the International Organisation for Migration and the World Food Programme, have suspended their activities.

Patrick Youssef, regional director of the International Committee of the Red Cross, urged other countries to keep up pressure on Sudan to find a “long-lasting solution”, even after foreigners had been evacuated.