Sudanese Health Authorities Say Objection to Autopsy Unidentified Bodies May Cause Plague Outbreak

A security man stands guard outside Sudan's Attorney General headquarters, which is sprayed with a graffiti that reads in Arabic "retribution", in the capital Khartoum on 15 June 2020. AFP 

September 27, 2022 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese health officials Monday expressed the urged need to autopsy over three thousand unidentified bodies piled up at Khartoum mortuaries, stressing the current situation may trigger a pandemic of plague disease.

The growing opposition to the burial of the unidentified bodies of protesters killed by the security after the collapse of the former triggered its postponement by the Public Prosecution on Sunday.

However, the move angered the forensic authority pointing out that the prosecution cannot contest the legitimacy of their decision and expressed fears that the bodies stacked in the Khartoum hospitals may cause an outbreak of plague disease.

“We stick to the autopsy of all unidentified bodies in accordance with the Red Cross protocol and not to leave them in this tragic situation,” Aqil Swar al-Dahab, the head of the Forensic Medicine Authority’s Advisory Board, stated in a press conference held on Monday.

Swar al-Dahab said that it was inappropriate for a legal body to revoke its decision.

The ban on autopsy resulted in the accumulation of around 3,500 bodies, compared to barely 200 bodies in 2019, he further added.

The security forces killed hundreds of Sudanese before the collapse of the al-Bashir regime. Also, the bloody repression continued before the signing of a political agreement with the political forces in August 2019 and resumed after the coup in October 2021.

The ruling military authorities say favourable for the investigation into the killing of peaceful protesters, but they are accused of being behind efforts to bury the victims and clear any evidence about their responsibility in this violence.

On Monday, the police authorities dispersed hundreds of demonstrators in Omdurman who protested the burial of the victims of enforced disappearance.

Two investigators, speaking told Sudan Tribune that they think that over 200 bodies of enforced disappearance victims are among the piled bodies.

Many of the piled bodies began to decompose due to the constant power outages and the loading of morgues beyond their capacity.

Pro-democracy groups including families of the missing, the Missing Persons Initiative, the Doctors Committee and resistance committees, renewed their rejection of the autopsy and burial of thousands of unidentified bodies.

(ST)