Food poisoning strikes hundreds at Iraq camp for displaced people
HASSAN SHAM U2 CAMP, Iraq — Food poisoning at a camp for displaced residents of Mosul has made more than 700 people sick, with hundreds hospitalized, Iraqi officials said Tuesday.
The incident at the Hassan Sham U2 camp, about 13 miles east of Mosul, has become part of the ongoing dispute between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Saudi media accused a Qatari charity of supplying tainted food to the residents of the desert camp.
Iraqi Health Minister Adila Hamoud told The Associated Press 752 people in the camp became ill following a Monday night iftar — the meal breaking the dawn-to-dusk fast by Muslims during the holy month of Ramadan. At least 300 people remain in serious condition, he said.
The Health Ministry reported two people died, but the provincial governor said there had only been one death. The U.N. refugee agency at first reported one death but later said nobody had died. The conflicting reports could not immediately be reconciled.
Amira Abdulhaliq of the UNHCR said it was unclear when the meals had become contaminated, whether it was during its preparation, packaging, transportation or distribution.
“So far, we have received around 800 cases. Around 200 have been transported to the hospitals in Irbil,” she said.
Irbil Gov. Nawzad Hadi said the food was prepared in an Irbil restaurant by a local NGO, Ain el Muhtajeen, and funded by a Qatari charity known as RAF. In Saudi Arabia, which has been leading a recent campaign to isolate Qatar, state media quickly seized on the issue with coverage that implied Qatar was poisoning refugees deliberately.
On Twitter, Saudi state television accused RAF of supplying tainted meals and posted images it said showed the camp’s children “poisoned by the terrorist Qatari RAF organization.”
An Iraqi lawmaker who visited the camp overnight also accused the Qatari charity of providing the tainted food.
At midday Tuesday, medics were treating patients in a large tent at the edge of the camp. About 20-30 patients, mostly children, lay on blankets on the floor as several more serious cases were taken away in ambulances.