Sudan warns of disease from unidentified bodies
CAIRO: Sudanese medical officials warned that more than 1,500 unidentified bodies piled up in several of the country’s morgues could lead to an outbreak of disease, amid accusations the government is covering up their causes of death.
Among the deceased are believed to be prodemocracy protesters, who activists say were killed by government forces in their crackdown on demonstrations. They believe the failure to conduct proper autopsies is an atempt to conceal evidence of those killings.
Mahjoub Babaker, a forensic medicine and toxicology consultant for the country’s autopsy body, expressed concerns because of the proximity of one of the morgues to a market, saying the bodies “could spread a plague among local residents.”
At a press conference late Monday, he and three other officials argued against the need to carry out independent autopsies, saying instead that there should be a mass burial of the bodies for public safety reasons.
They announced a postponement of any autopsies in order to discuss maters with the deceased individuals’ families.
Reports of the backlog of bodies awaiting autopsy first emerged in May, with a news video released earlier this month showing piles of corpses and limbs kept in a building that appeared to have no refrigeration.
Then, the country’s top public prosecutor authorised the mass burial of the bodies last month without an autopsy.
It came as the country faced an ongoing crackdown on anti-military protests ater a military coup last year.
In October, Sudan’s short-lived democratic transition was upended when the country’s leading general, Abdel-fatah Burhan, deposed the government and locked up hundreds of officials and activists.
Pro-democracy groups and families of missing protesters have said the failure to conduct proper autopsies is an atempt to conceal evidence of the killing of hundreds of pro-democracy demonstrators by Sudanese armed forces following the 2019 popular uprising that ousted long-time ruler Omar Al Bashir.