Tainted grain kills 13 in West Darfur camp

A total of 13 people have reportedly died, including three children and four women, at Murnei camp in West Darfur on Sunday and Monday, apparently after eating contaminated grain. As reported by Radio Dabanga on Sunday, sheiks said that 275 people were stricken with vomiting and acute diarrhoea. Some of those were in “critical condition”. A sheik of the camp told Radio Dabanga on Monday that “the health authorities have not yet provided any assistance to the sick at the camp’s medical centre,” adding that “in addition to the human casualties “large numbers of livestock have also died”. The sheikh said that after hearing about the poisoning, officials of the food security programme, who have been distributing grain to the displaced, burned the contaminated grain in large pits on Sunday night, and then buried it. “This grain was supplied by the Khartoum government, and is not of the same kind or quality supplied by the UN World Food Programme,” he said. “Those who supplied the contaminated grain should be arrested and brought to justice.” The sheikh appealed to the health authorities and humanitarian organisations to come to the aid of the displaced. File photo: Food ration distribution to the displaced in Darfur (Albert González Farran/UNAMID) Related: 275 displaced ‘poisoned by contaminated food’ in West Darfur camp (25 August 2013)