WRAP: Exodus from Sudan continues as lab seizure poses biohazard risk

Record ID: 1721665

  • Title: WRAP: Exodus from Sudan continues as lab seizure poses biohazard risk
  • Date: 25th April 2023
  • Summary: BEIRUT, LEBANON (APRIL 25, 2023) (REUTERS) RADAR TOWER IN BEIRUT AIRPORT VARIOUS OF FAMILIES OF EVACUEES WAITING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) LEBANESE CITIZEN EVACUATED FROM SUDAN, RUDY AL-HABR, SAYING: "Bombing accelerated. Instead of normal shelling, there were planes bombing, counter-bombing and ammunition bombing from everywhere. The situation evolved and armed groups were everywhere, we couldn't understand what was happening. The country was closed, you couldn't leave your place or else you will get injured immediately. We were able some four days later to flee. We stayed in a secure place for three days until we were able to extract to Port Sudan."
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2023 17:52
  • Keywords: Germany Khartoum Lebanon Sudan UK bio hazard conflict evacuees neasles and cholera pathogens
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: Sudan
  • Topics: Africa,Conflicts/War/Peace
  • Reuters ID: LVA006769725042023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A WRAP AND DOES NOT CONTAIN ANY NEW MATERIAL
    Fighting in Sudan eased on Tuesday (April 25) and more foreigners and locals fled the capital Khartoum, where marauding combatants created what a U.N. agency said was a "high risk of biological hazard" by seizing a laboratory.
    The World Health Organization (WHO) said one of the warring parties had taken control of a national health facility that stores measles and cholera pathogens for vaccinations, and ejected the technicians.
    It gave few details and did not say which of the two sides - the army or the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)- had captured the lab, which also contains a major blood bank.
    An exodus of embassies and aid workers from Africa's third largest country has raised fears that civilians who remain will be in greater danger if an alternative to hostilities is not found before a shaky three-day truce ends on Thursday (April 27).
    (Production: Paul Warren, Gabriela Boccaccio)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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