Claims that Sudan’s Health minster fell asleep during a live interview when answering questions on the coronavirus crisis have been reported by multiple news platforms.
Background
According to the latest information, Sudan has 32 confirmed cases along with 5 deaths. Despite having a lower number of cases compared to other neighboring countries, Sudan has closed its borders and airports over fear of the spread of coronavirus.
Verification
A YouTube video from 2019 shows that the man being interviewed is not Sudan’s Health Minster, but Malek Taha, who is an Editor-in-Chief of a magazine called Al-Sudan Al-Youm’s. Malek was pretending to sleep to avoid answering questions about [now ousted] President Omar al-Bashir who was overthrown by the government of Sudan in a coup.
Moreover, if you translate the Arabic interview to English, you’ll realize that the interviewer calls him Malek Taha and NOT Dr Akram Ali Altom who is the Sudanese Health Minister.
Dr Akram Ali Altom is photographed here.
Verdict
The claim that Sudan’s Health Minister fell asleep in a live interview is FALSE.
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