The Abyei Area’s Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries has released its findings after investigating reports of contaminated fish that allegedly made consumers sick in Awal village last week.
Last week, reports made rounds that several people in Rummamer County developed running stomachs and started vomiting after eating fish caught from parts of the river that had developed a green hue.
However, Mawien Mayot, the director of fisheries in the Abyei Ministry of Animal Resources and Fisheries who led the investigation committee, told Radio Tamazuj Tuesday that the six people who were affected after eating fish are from Awuolnhom and not Awal village as earlier reported.
“We got three reasons from the fishermen who said that people eat undercooked fish and that bacteria caused diarrhoea. The fishermen also said they get dead fish floating in the river at 6 in the morning and children collect and cook them,” he explained. “This fish might be killed by chemicals or bullets that fell in the river during clashes. Lastly, the majority of people go for wild fish and my observation is that people are hungry and do not let fish cook well and that could have caused the problems.”
“The first day of infection was on Wednesday last week and only three people were affected and it happened in Awalnhom village and no one died as a result of eating the fish,” Mayot added.
He said was in Akecnhial village momentarily and will go to Abithok village to carry out more investigations.
Abuk Kiir, a resident of Awal village, rubbished the claims that people were poisoned after eating fish.
“This speculation is wrong and the incident did not happen here. In Awal village, we eat fish every day because we depend on it. I also work at the health facility and if someone was infected, he or she would have been brought to the health centre,” she said. “A woman from Nyalchuor village near Aneet bought a fish from a person in Awal and did not feel well after eating it and called Abyei FM and said that fish in Awal village poisoned people.”
Meanwhile, Ajak Atem, a local government officer in Awal Boma, also said that the information about poisonous fish is not true.
“There is nothing of that kind and it was fabricated,” he said. “When I heard it, I went to Dr. Chol Aguek of Awal Clinic to find out more but there was nothing of that kind.”