U.S. agencies have provided funding to a laboratory in Sudan's capital Khartoum which researches deadly pathogens that has been seized by militants, a report said.
The Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s National Institutes of Health agency provided financial and personnel support to Sudan’s National Public Health Laboratory (NPHL) – whose recent seizure by militants has prompted warnings of causing a “huge biological risk,” Natalie Winters reported for the War Room on Wednesday.
"The revelations about U.S. government involvement in Sudan’s NPHL follow similar scrutiny over support from a Hunter Biden-linked company for Ukrainian Biolabs working on 'extremely dangerous pathogens,' " Winters noted. "It also follows Dr. Fauci allocating millions of taxpayer dollars to support gain-of-function research on coronavirus strains strikingly similar to COVID-19 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology."
Nima Saeed Abid, the World Health Organization (WHO) representative in Sudan, confirmed that the situation at NPHL was “extremely dangerous” because “we have polio isolates in the lab, we have measles isolates in the lab, we have cholera isolates in the lab.”
U.S. federal funding has directly supported research into cholera at the high-risk laboratory as has the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“There is a huge biological risk associated with the occupation of the central public health lab in Khartoum by one of the fighting parties,” Nima added.
The lab is a recipient of support from a variety U.S. government agencies, Winters reported, including the DoD, CDC, and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). During Dr. Fauci’s tenure as a National Institutes of Health (NIH) agency leader, he also allocated funds to support research involving scientists from the Sudan laboratory.
A research paper published in July 2022, “Viral load scale-up in South Sudan: Strategic implementation of tools to monitor HIV treatment success among people living with HIV”, involving the Sudan lab lists financial support from the CDC through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. The paper includes two researchers from the NPHL alongside four CDC researchers from the Divisions of Global HIV & TB and Healthcare Quality Promotion.
Tensions between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces spiraled out of control earlier this month. The fighting has killed at least 459 people and injured thousands.
It remains unclear what power international officials have to stop the worsening situation in Sudan. Governments and international agencies have been pulling out staff as the situation has worsened.
Nima made his remarks while calling into a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, after fleeing Khartoum in a convoy across the Sudanese desert to Port Sudan.
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