Two die in mass food poisoning at Iraq camp
700 refugees ill and woman and girl die from charity’s food
HASSAN SHAM CAMP, IRAQ // A woman and a girl died and 700 became sick in a mass food poisoning at a refugee camp near Mosul.
Up to 300 people were rushed from the desert tent camp to hos- pitals in the nearby city of Erbil after people started to become ill on Monday evening.
The affected food was eaten as part of iftar at Hassan Sham, one of the many camps dotting the region around Mosul where Iraqi forces are battling ISIL.
The meal included rice, yogurt, chicken and soup and had been bought from a restaurant by a charity, said Joel Millman of the International Organisation for Migration.
Iraq’s health minister Adila Hamoud said 752 people became ill after the meal and at least 300 remain in a serious condition. Amira Abdulhaliq, from the United Nations’ refugee agency, said it remained unclear at which point the food was contaminated – preparation, packaging, transport or distribution.
“So far we have received around 800 cases. Around 200 have been transported to the hospitals in Irbil,” Ms Abdulhaliq said.
Yesterday, medics were treating patients in a large tent at the edge of the camp.
Up to 30, mostly small children, lay on blankets on the floor as several more serious cases were ferried away by ambulances.
Another patient arrived during the day. Most of those afflicted were suffering from stomach cramps and dehydration, resulting from vomiting and diarrhoea.
Iraqi MP Raad Al Dahlaki, who chairs the parliament’s immigration and displacement committee and who visited the camp overnight, said the food was distributed by a Qatari charity known as RAF.
He said Iraqi officials would meet representatives of the organisation, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Erbil police chief Abdulhaleq Talaat said seven people were arrested in connection with the incident.
He said the food was prepared in an Erbil restaurant by a local NGO, Ain el Muhtajeen, under a donation by RAF. Dr Sabur Ahmed, head of Erbil children’s hospital, said 22 children remained in hospital. The rest have been discharged.
On Twitter, Saudi state television accused RAF of supplying the tainted meals and posted images it said showed the camp’s children “poisoned by the terrorist Qatari RAF organisation”. RAF is the acronym for the Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani Foundation for Humanitarian Services, a charity that collects donations for aid work around the world, including providing meals to needy families during Ramadan.
It is also among 12 organisations and 59 people put on what Saudi, Emirati and Bahraini officials described as a list of terror organisations and people on Friday.
Qatari state television repeatedly aired a programme that discussed how the diplomatic dispute has stopped the country providing meals to Syrian refugees at a major camp in Jordan. The Hassan Sham camp houses thousands who have fled their homes in and around Mosul after an Iraqi offensive was launched to dislodge ISIL from the city last October. It is home to 6,235 people.