WHO Fears More Deaths in Sudan Due to Outbreaks, Collapse of Services

A man cleans debris of a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. (AP)
A man cleans debris of a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. (AP)
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WHO Fears More Deaths in Sudan Due to Outbreaks, Collapse of Services

A man cleans debris of a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. (AP)
A man cleans debris of a house hit in recent fighting in Khartoum, Sudan, Tuesday, April 25, 2023. (AP)

The World Health Organization (WHO) expects "many more" deaths in Sudan due to outbreaks of disease and a lack of essential services amid fighting, its director general said on Wednesday.

Battles between Sudan's army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary since mid-April has killed at least 459 people and injured more than 4,000, according to the WHO.

"On top of the number of deaths and injuries caused by the conflict itself, the WHO expects there will be many more deaths due to outbreaks, lack of access to food and water and disruptions to essential health services, including immunization," WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Tedros added that only 16% of health facilities were functioning in the Sudanese capital.

"WHO estimates that one quarter of the lives lost so far could have been saved with access to basic hemorrhage control. But paramedics, nurses and doctors are unable to access injured civilians, and civilians are unable to access services."

The UN health body was carrying out a risk assessment to determine whether the seizure of a laboratory in Khartoum housing pathogens represented a risk to public health.

"When lab workers are forced to leave a laboratory and untrained people enter that laboratory, there are always risks, but the risks are primarily to those individuals first and foremost to accidentally expose themselves to the pathogens," said Mike Ryan, head of WHO's health emergencies program.

However, the absence of clean water and vaccines, as well as other sanitation issues, represented the main risk to Sudanese, he added.



Switzerland Lifts Economic Sanctions on Syria

A drone view shows the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 16, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view shows the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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Switzerland Lifts Economic Sanctions on Syria

A drone view shows the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 16, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view shows the Syrian central bank, after the ousting of Syria's Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, December 16, 2024. (Reuters)

Switzerland said on Friday it will lift a raft of economic sanctions imposed on Syria, including the Middle Eastern country's central bank.

After the toppling of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, targeted sanctions against individuals and entities linked to the former government will still remain in place, Switzerland's governing Federal Council said.

"The aim of this decision is to promote the country's economic recovery and an inclusive and peaceful political transition," the council said in a statement.

After an initial easing of sanctions in March, Switzerland is now lifting restrictions on the provision of certain financial services, trade in precious metals and the export of luxury goods, the government said.

Some 24 entities including the central bank of Syria have also been removed from the sanctions list, it added.

The announcement follows the EU's decision to lift its economic sanctions on Syria at the end of May after a similar move by the US Treasury Department in the same month.