Sudan fighting brings "huge biological risk" as lab holding samples of deadly diseases occupied, WHO warns

Geneva — Fighters have occupied a national public laboratory in Sudan holding samples of diseases including polio and measles, creating an "extremely, extremely dangerous" situation, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday. Fighters "kicked out all the technicians from the lab... which is completely under the control of one of the fighting parties as a military base," said Nima Saeed Abid, the WHO's representative in Sudan.

He did not say which of the two warring factions had taken over the laboratory, as a tense truce appeared to be largely holding Tuesday, easing more than a week of intense fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the country's RSF paramilitary group.