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(CNN) The World Health Organization warned on Tuesday of a “huge biological risk” after Sudanese fighters seized the National Institute of Public Health in the capital Khartoum, as foreign nations began efforts to quickly evacuate the country. and the violence punctured the fragile US-brokered ceasefire.
Gunfire and the roar of fighter planes were heard by CNN journalists in Khartoum on Tuesday, half a day after the 72-hour ceasefire was announced, in hopes of opening an escape route for desperate civilians. increased. Violent clashes have erupted in northern Khartoum state between the Sudanese army and the Emergency Relief Army, a militia fighting the army for control of the state, an eyewitness told CNN.
The two disputing sides accused each other of violating the agreement.
The number of people dead in Sudan has reached at least 459 since violence erupted 11 days ago, the World Health Organization said Tuesday, with at least 4,072 injured.
Seized lab is a potential ‘germ bomb’
A high-ranking medical official told CNN that a laboratory containing disease samples and other biological material had been taken over by RSF forces. The WHO took no responsibility for the seizure of the lab, but said medical technicians had lost access to the facility.
The WHO representative in Sudan, Nima Saeed Abid, called the development “very dangerous. The lab has polio isolates, the lab has measles isolates, the lab has cholera isolates.” because there is.”
“The occupation of the Central Institute of Public Health in Khartoum by one of the parties to the conflict carries with it enormous biological risks,” he added.
In a statement to CNN, WHO said that “laboratories are no longer accessible to trained lab technicians,” facilities have suffered power outages, and “biological materials stored in laboratories for medical purposes cannot be properly managed,” he said. the purpose. ”
Power outages also mean the blood bag inventory is at risk of depletion, according to the institute’s director.
A medical source told CNN, “The danger is that there will be armed clashes in the lab.”
“We face a real biological danger and therefore require urgent and rapid international intervention to restore power and protect our laboratories from armed conflict,” the source added.
CNN has reached out to RSF for comment.
Countries race to expel their citizens
Britain, France, South Korea and many others confirmed on Tuesday that they would withdraw their citizens after Secretary of State Anthony Brinken announced that they had agreed to a three-day ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the White House is reviewing plans to send U.S. troops to Port Sudan to help evacuate American citizens, a U.S. official familiar with the operation told CNN on Monday.
Three US warships are also deployed off the coast of Sudan. A Navy official told CNN that the US sent USNS Brunswick to Sudan a day after the Pentagon said her USS Traxton was already off the coast of Sudan and that USS Lewis B. Puller was on its way. He said he does.
CNN’s team in Djibouti obtained images released by the US military showing personnel arriving in the country. Both France and Pakistan said they had evacuated hundreds of their citizens, while China said most of its citizens had been dragged out of the country.
A US government employee arrives in Djibouti after being evacuated from Sudan.
As many as 500 people fleeing the fighting began boarding the French frigate Lorraine in Port Sudan on Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for the French Defense Ministry told CNN.
At least one US citizen, Sudanese-American doctor Dr. Bouchreib Nauf Sleeman, was killed in Khartoum on Tuesday.
Sullyman, who taught at the University of Khartoum, the country’s oldest medical school, was stabbed to death in front of his home, according to a preliminary committee of the Sudan Doctors’ Union.
“Dr. Sleeman was killed outside his home while he was accompanying his father to a dialysis appointment due to the security situation in Sudan,” said Dr. Yasir Elamin, president of the Sudan American Medical Association.
Since clashes first broke out in Sudan in mid-April, the previous ceasefire collapsed within hours of being declared. But the latest agreement, announced by Mr Blinken after two days of “intense negotiations”, raises hopes of opening a window through which foreign countries can rush the safety of their citizens and staff. Saudi Arabia was also involved in mediating the ceasefire, according to Reuters.
On Tuesday, both sides of the conflict accused each other of breaking the armistice. The militia’s Rapid Support Force (RSF) is moving military convoys into the capital to carry out a large-scale military operation, according to the military, which has deployed snipers in parts of Khartoum and has opened the embassy. was conducting operations in the vicinity of The military did not provide any evidence for its claims.
The RSF accused the military of violating the ceasefire by “continuing to attack Khartoum with aircraft”. Witnesses told CNN that they heard fighter planes over Omdurman, north of the capital.
Declining supplies in the capital
Khartoum state is running out of water supplies and “running out” of food as the conflict rages into its second week, witnesses told CNN on Tuesday.
A witness who requested anonymity for security reasons told CNN that several food factories across the state had been looted.
“In terms of water supply, we don’t have water for 11 days in a row. We only get water from a nearby well. If not, you have to take something small to get enough water,” the witness said.
Saif Mohammed Osman, 51, a freelancer living in Shambbat, North Bari, told CNN on Tuesday that food shortages have resulted from the complete burning of the Central Market, which supplies much of Bari with vegetables and meat. Said they were out of stock. and other food.
Osman told CNN that residents were also suffering financially as civil servants had not received their wages prior to last weekend’s Eid al-Fitr holiday and bank ATMs had stopped working. .
Osman told CNN that due to the lack of security and a police presence, patrols are being carried out to protect neighborhoods from the widespread looting and robberies that have exposed large areas of Khartoum.
On Monday, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) warned that food, water, medicine and fuel shortages had become “extremely severe” in Khartoum and surrounding areas.
“Access to health care, including sexual and reproductive health care, has been severely impacted by conflict,” added UNOCHA. “Civilian displacement continues to be reported in the states of Khartoum, North, Blue Nile, North Kordofan, North Darfur, West Darfur and South Darfur, with reports of cross-border movements to neighboring countries.”
People fled Khartoum by bus on Tuesday.
Many Sudanese who were caught in the heat of the fighting attempted a dangerous escape from the capital, taking advantage of the short breaks in the fighting in haste for safety.
Sudan has been plagued with violence since a bloody power struggle between two rival generals spilled into the streets. Armies loyal to each man fight in the streets of Khartoum and in the towns around the capital.
During the course of the fighting, the RSF and the Sudanese military issued statements discrediting each other, making baseless claims of controlling key posts in the capital and accusing both sides of targeting civilians. there is
On Monday, the Sudanese military said the RSF had killed an Egyptian diplomat, and the RSF said the army targeted civilians in an airstrike near Khartoum. Neither group provided evidence for their claims.
CNN’s Sam Kiley, Jennifer Hansler, Donald Judd, Peter Bairin, Aurore Laborie, Tara John, and Mo Tawfeeq contributed to the report.
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