Fighting Disrupts Critical Laboratory in Khartoum

The World Health Organization warned Tuesday of a “huge biological risk” after Sudanese fighters seized the National Public Health Laboratory in the capital Khartoum, as Western and Asian nations raced to mount rapid evacuation efforts from the country and violence punctured a fragile US-brokered ceasefire. A high-ranking medical source told CNN that the lab, which contains samples of diseases and other biological material, had been taken over by RSF forces. The WHO said in a statement to CNN that “trained laboratory technicians no longer have access to the laboratory” and that the facility had suffered power cuts, meaning “it is not possible to properly manage the biological materials that are stored in the laboratory for medical purposes.” The power cuts also mean there is a risk of spoilage of depleting stocks of blood bags, according to the director-general of the laboratory.
 SOURCE: CNN