By Dr. Hassan Humeida
KIEL, GERMANY: The ongoing war in Sudan has heavily damaged museums, including those dedicated to biodiversity, environmental conservation, and the country’s natural history. The Natural History Museum of the University of Khartoum was robbed, destroying hundreds of years of preserved species, including rare ones.
It is important to note that the chemical preservation of these species relies on the use of toxic substances, which should not be touched without careful protection. These penetrating substances harm the skin, lungs, nerves, eyes, and the body as a whole.
There are also environmental concerns in the major industrial areas of the capital, Khartoum, particularly East Khartoum. These hazardous industrial sites are closely intertwined with residential neighborhoods, increasing the risk of local residents being exposed to pollutants if they are partially or completely damaged.
This is an example of the serious future environmental impact of the fire that struck the main oil refinery in the Jelei area, 45 kilometers north of Khartoum. Reports indicate that this incident, due to the war and the damage to the refinery and its storage facilities, led to widespread pollution in the surrounding areas.
Meanwhile, the large oil fires have led to deteriorating air quality and the emission of hazardous gases and pollutants, the least of which can lead to chronic respiratory diseases and the most severe of which can lead to an increase in cancerous diseases due to toxic emissions or sudden death.
The widespread use of explosive weapons in urban areas has caused extensive damage, the effects of which are expected to last a long time. Large residential and service areas in Khartoum have been severely damaged, resulting in the accumulation of crushed building materials such as asbestos and other permeable building materials that react with high temperatures and fires.
Some of these materials are believed to have been mixed with toxic components of the weapons and explosives used extensively in the fighting over the past months.
To date, there are no clear plans to restore vital sectors such as agriculture, grazing, fishing, or organized and sustainable internal and external trade. There are still no means for the return of displaced persons and those displaced from their homes after the war, nor for resettlement after they were forced to leave their homes under the fire of war.
However, the situation in these sectors continues amidst panic, with back and forth. Every day, residents return, individually and as families, voluntarily or by force, due to the lack of prospects for survival in foreign lands. They come to face a painful reality: life amidst explosives, clutches, and rubble. Survival in places where environmental hazards, health risks, and hidden death lurk.
Here, the new life becomes increasingly complicated, exacerbating the risks of returning residents inhaling contaminated materials, all of which are detrimental to the health of all age groups, especially vulnerable groups exhausted by fleeing war and its resulting effects of humiliation, deprivation, poverty, hunger, and disease.
Sudan is now mired in a huge and complex dilemma, which can only be avoided by sitting at a round table that brings together the warring parties in peace and obligates them to lay down their weapons forever without choice, and forces them to search for alternative and urgent solutions that address the requirements of the peaceful civilians first and foremost.
All this should be under a strong, cohesive and sustainable democratic rule, chosen by the citizen voters, and far from turning the wheels of a tyrannical and unjust rule, which returns once again to the seat of power on the principle of establishing a replacement system of government, built on policies of quotas, appeasement and deception.
Email: hassan_humeida@yahoo.de
