There is a highBiological hazardin the Sudanese capital Khartoum after one of the warring parties seized a laboratory containing measles and cholera pathogens and other dangerous materials, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva via video link from Sudan, WHO spokesman Nima Saeed Abid said technicians were unable to reach the National Public Health Laboratory to secure materials.

“This is the main problem: the inability for laboratory technicians to enter the laboratory and safely store biological material and available substances,” he said, declining to specify which side seized the object.

Clashes between the Sudanese armed forces and paramilitary rapid support forces broke out on 15 April, killing at least 459 people and injuring 4,072 others, according to the latest WHO figures.

The fighting has paralyzed hospitals and other essential services and locked many in their homes as food and water supplies run out.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has been forced to reduce some of its activities in parts of Sudan due to serious conflict.

At least five aid workers have been killed since fighting began, and two UN agencies that have lost staff, the International Organization for Migration and the World Food Program, have suspended operations in the country.

“In areas where severe conflicts hinder our humanitarian operations, we have been forced to reduce our presence,” said OCHA spokesman Jens Lerke. “But we are determined to continue to work for the benefit of the people of Sudan,” he added.

He said the OCHA team would lead the humanitarian withdrawal from Port Sudan after the transfer from Khartoum.

Patrick Youssef, the International Committee of the Red Cross’s (ICRC) regional director for Africa, urged other countries to continue to put pressure on Sudan to find a “long-term solution” even after the foreign nationals have been expelled.

In addition, up to 270,000 people may have fled Sudan and are in Chad and South Sudan, the UNHCR said today.

According to Laura lo Castro, the representative of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Chad, 20,000 refugees have arrived in this country, and the organization expects up to 100,000 people to arrive “in the worst case.”

In addition, “in South Sudan, the most likely scenario is the return of 125,000 South Sudanese refugees and 45,000 other refugees,” said Marie-Helene Vernet, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the country, at a press conference.

According to APE-MPE, Reuters and AFP.