MOSCOW, April 26. /TASS/. Russia’s embassy to Khartoum does not possess any information about the seizure of a bio laboratory in Sudan, Russian Ambassador to Sudan Andrey Chernovol told TASS on Wednesday.
"So far, no such information has been released here, but for this statement," the diplomat said, commenting on the statement released by the World Health Organization (WHO) .
On Tuesday, the WHO expressed concern over the seizure of a biological laboratory in Sudan by one of the parties to the conflict that has gripped the country. The WHO said that "when the electricity shut down and with no technician taking care of all these, the risk of biological hazard is high in Khartoum because of the occupation of the lab by one of the fighting parties." The WHO representative added that "there is high risk of biological hazards because in that lab we have already isolates, we have measles isolates as well as cholera isolates."
Sudan crisis
The situation in Sudan escalated amid disagreements between the army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who also heads the ruling Sovereignty Council, and the head of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (known as Hemedti), who is al-Burhan’s deputy on the council.
The main points of contention between the two military organizations pertain to the timeline and methods for unifying the armed forces of Sudan, as well as who should be appointed as commander-in-chief of the army: a career military officer, which is al-Burhan’s preferred option, or an elected civilian president, as Dagalo insists.
On April 15, armed clashes between the rival military factions erupted near a military base in Merowe and in the capital, Khartoum. According to the country’s health ministry, more than 600 people have been killed in the country since the conflict broke out. In turn, the World Health Organization reported that the conflict had claimed about 450 lives with over 4,000 people suffering injuries.