KHARTOUM, 14 July 2004 — The health of jailed Sudanese Islamist opposition leader Hassan Turabi has deteriorated since he began a hunger strike two weeks ago, his wife said yesterday. Turabi, a one-time mentor of President Omar Bashir, is awaiting trial on a raft of offences against the state including incitement to sedition, sabotage and undermining the regime.

His wife Wisal Al-Mahdi said Turabi has fainted several times through low blood pressure, a condition exacerbated by a lack of salt as a result of the hunger strike he and 73 other political detainees have waged since June 30.

The opposition Popular Congress leader, who was detained amid government allegations of a coup attempt by sympathizers of a rebellion by indigenous minorities in the western region of Darfur, had only been at liberty for six months since being freed from three years of house arrest last year.

Wisal told AFP said she was informed that doctors were administering salt and sugar drips to Turabi, but called for him husband be taken to a hospital for treatment. She voiced concern that her husband was not among 12 Popular Congress detainees released on Monday for health reasons, although she said defense lawyers had telephoned her from the prison to reassure her about Turabi’s condition.

“We are worried about the sheikh, so we have to see him whether in prison or in hospital or anywhere,” said Wisal, sister of former Prime Minister Sadek Al-Mahdi. Turabi has been increasingly critical of the scorched earth policy adopted by the government in the western Sudanese area of Darfur, where the United Nations says at least 10,000 have been killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless by clashes between the rebels and government-backed Arab militias.

“He was bitten by a rat and we are very worried about rabies,” Wisal told Reuters. “The conditions in which he is being kept are appalling.” She added his family had not been able to visit him for more than 17 days and they had received the information from a prisoner who was released the day before.

“The prison authorities said to us that they would move him to hospital when and if their doctor ordered it,” she added. “But they said they had been giving him saline solution to push his blood pressure back up.”

Meanwhile, World Health Organization chief Lee Jong-wook headed to Darfur yesterday to see first hand the medical situation in the war-torn region of western Sudan, WHO officials said.

Lee is to visit camps in southern and western Darfur set up for those who have fled villages to escape fighting which has created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst current humanitarian crisis.

Thousands of refugees have fled to camps created for Internally Displaced Persons since a revolt broke out in Darfur in February 2003 against the Khartoum government. Many thousands more have fled into neighboring Chad.

The Sudanese daily Al-Sahafa quoted the WHO chief as warning against a further deterioration in health conditions in Darfur, especially with the onset of the rainy season. Hassan Jazairi, the WHO regional director for the Middle East, is accompanying Lee and the newspaper quoted him as saying that bad roads were hampering the delivery of medical and other supplies to the region.

Jazairi added that his agency was prepared to work with the Sudanese government to improve the access of people of Darfur to free medical care.

He also said the WHO had called on the international fund for the control of AIDS and malaria to release an annual 12 million dollar aid payment to Sudan which has been withheld for three years now.

The WHO delegation is expected to return to Khartoum today to discuss its findings with government officials, including the health minister. More than 10,000 people are estimated to have died in Darfur and at least 1.2 million driven from their homes since the revolt against the Arab-dominated government broke out among indigenous ethnic minorities.

In retaliation, the pro-government Arab Janjawid militias have carried out what UN officials say is a brutal campaign against black Africans. Western officials and aid agencies have accused the Khartoum government of deliberately hindering access to Darfur and supporting the militias in a brutal reign of terror.