Putrid poultry scramble sparks Sierra Leone spat

FREETOWN: A scramble by thousands of people for scraps of imported rotten chicken sparked a huge standoff between police and residents in Sierra Leone’s capital over the weekend, the health ministry said.

The ministry said health inspectors and police were on the hunt for what remained of a huge consignment of putrid poultry imported from Brazil on July 12, which was buried at a Freetown rubbish dump after health officials deemed it unfit for consumption.

But thousands of residents went to the dump in the city’s east after learning about the vast haul of chicken, which they then tried to dig out with shovels, hoes and pickaxes.

Police moved in, using tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to prevent people from removing the contaminated meat after crowds barged past health inspectors.

Police made 40 arrests, the ministry said, adding that three quarters of the chicken had been crushed with mud at a site littered with human and animal faeces as well as other domestic and industrial waste.

Despite efforts to stop people getting their hands on the meat in clashes which left several with minor injuries, many residents managed to make off with scraps.

“We are going to wash, cook and eat the chicken during our family supper,” said Aminata Kamara, a mother of three who managed to salvage two bags of the rotten chicken.

Smiling broadly, she hurriedly called her siblings to bring a bucket of water and soap to clean the grime-covered chicken, a meat that is highly popular amongst families in Freetown alongside fish.

An elite police unit acting on a tip-off raided nearby shops and confiscated cartons of the rotten chicken.

Civil society groups demanded that local authorities immediately investigate the company that imported the meat, Universal Impex Business.

The chairman of the company has reportedly gone into hiding.

“We are worried that some of the rotten chicken if consumed might cause an outbreak (worse) than Ebola,” said Victor Lansana Koroma, director of a local health NGO, demanded the arrest and prosecution of the importer.

Sierra Leone is only just recovering from a recent Ebola outbreak that left over 4,000 people dead in the country.

Some 60 per cent of people in Sierra Leone live below the national poverty line, according to the UN Development Programme.