According to reports, thousands of unclaimed bodies are being left to decompose in Sudan’s capital city, Khartoum, due to the city’s morgues reaching their capacity.
The bodies have been flooding into morgues in the city since December, and authorities are unable to cope with the surge. In some cases, the bodies are dumped in streets and allies due to families not being able to afford burial costs, or because they are not allowed to come together to arrange funerals due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The alarming situation has been reported by the civil society group, Sudan Doctors Syndicate, who said that “this is a matter of life and death as thousands of unclaimed bodies are rotting on the streets” and released a statement calling on the government to expedite work on morgues, hospitals and other medical structures.
The Sudanese government has yet to respond to the situation, but it is believed that the lack of resources and funding to provide proper burials to those without identification or resources has been the main cause of the rise in body count.
The ministry of health and Social Development have expressed plans to equip 12 morgues in the city that would more than double their current capacity.
