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Multinational Companies Support Yemen with Tens of Thousands of COVID-19 Test Kits

FILE PHOTO: A health worker takes temperature of passengers of a van, amid fear of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Taiz, Yemen April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub
FILE PHOTO: A health worker takes temperature of passengers of a van, amid fear of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Taiz, Yemen April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub
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Multinational Companies Support Yemen with Tens of Thousands of COVID-19 Test Kits

FILE PHOTO: A health worker takes temperature of passengers of a van, amid fear of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Taiz, Yemen April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub
FILE PHOTO: A health worker takes temperature of passengers of a van, amid fear of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), on the outskirts of Taiz, Yemen April 12, 2020. REUTERS/Anees Mahyoub

A group of multinational companies said on Wednesday it was donating tens of thousands of coronavirus testing kits and medical equipment to Yemen.

The International Initiative on COVID-19 (IICY) said in a statement that its first 34-tonne shipment would reach Yemen next week.

The aid includes 49,000 virus collection kits, 20,000 rapid test kits, five centrifuges and equipment that would enable 85,000 tests, and 24,000 COVID-19 nucleic acid test kits.

Yemen's health system was destroyed during a five-year war which left millions vulnerable to disease. The United Nations and aid groups have warned of a catastrophic outbreak should the novel coronavirus spread in the country which has very limited testing capabilities.

Yemen has reported only one laboratory-confirmed case of COVID-19, announced on April 10, according to Reuters.

IICY is working with the United Nations which will distribute the donated equipment, including 225 ventilators and more than half a million masks.

Up to now Yemen has had the capacity to test only a few thousand people, provided by the World Health Organization. The country also faces a shortage of ventilators and protective clothing.

“Yemen’s healthcare infrastructure will not be able to cope with the pressure placed on the system by COVID-19. We all fear that the result will be a major loss of life,” said IICY Chairman Nabil Hayel Saeed Anam, urging other private sector companies to join their initiative.

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Arab World

UN Appalled by Extrajudicial Killings in Khartoum

A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 
A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 
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UN Appalled by Extrajudicial Killings in Khartoum

A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 
A Sudanese army soldier gestures from the back of a vehicle as it drives past damaged cars lying along a street in Khartoum on Thursday (AFP photo) 

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk on Thursday said he was appalled by reports of widespread extrajudicial killings of civilians in Khartoum following its recapture by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on 26 March.

“I am utterly appalled by the credible reports of numerous incidents of summary executions of civilians in several areas of Khartoum, on apparent suspicions that they were collaborating with the Rapid Support Forces,” said Turk.

He then urged the commanders of the Sudanese Armed Forces “to take immediate measures to put an end to arbitrary deprivation of life.”

The UN Commissioner said his Office has reviewed multiple horrific videos posted on social media since 26 March, all of them apparently filmed in southern and eastern Khartoum.

“They show armed men – some in uniform and others in civilian clothes – executing civilians in cold blood, often in public settings. In some videos, perpetrators state that they are punishing supporters of RSF,” he said.

The RSF, led by Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, has been battling the army, led by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, since April 2023.

Last week the army said it had retaken full control of Khartoum after weeks of attacks on the capital by the paramilitaries, though Daglo said his forces had only “repositioned.”

On Thursday, Sudan's paramilitary said they downed an Antonov military plane, the fourth this month, belonging to the Sudanese army near Al Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur State.

The RSF published a video that they said showed the plane wreckage. It said in a statement that the plane dropped “dozens of barrel bombs on innocent civilians in Al Fasher and other Sudanese cities.”

Meanwhile, an activist group said that the RSF killed at least 85 people in one week during attacks south of the capital Khartoum.

“For the seventh consecutive day, the Janjaweed militias continue their violent attacks on villages... west of Jebel Awliya, resulting in the deaths of more than 85 people and the injury of dozens,” said the Sudanese resistance committee, referring to the RSF by the name of its precursor.

Bashir’s Deputy Released

Also on Thursday, Sudanese authorities released former First Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh and Youssif Abdel Fattah, a former minister.

Saleh and Abdel Fattah are among some 30 officials who are standing trial for their involvement in the June 30, 1989 coup, that brought former Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir to power.

SAF leader Abdel Fattah al Burhan issued the decision based on a judicial ruling that stated the two men need to receive treatment due to deteriorating health conditions.