At least eight houses were burnt to ashes after an electric fault in Aweil town’s Hai-Madiria residential area on Tuesday evening and the affected individuals now estimate their collective losses at between SSP 6 and 7 million and have called for assistance from the government.
Sadiq Idriss Issac, whose property was burned, said they incurred damages are equivalent to around SSP 7 million because their valuable assets were destroyed in the fire, leaving the families homeless.
“The fire started at around 4:30 pm (Tuesday) and the total loss is equivalent to between SSP 6 and 7 million because all the families have not rescued any property at all except their lives and the garments they were wearing,” Idriss lamented.
He appealed to the government and humanitarian organizations to come to their aid.
“I am appealing to the government and humanitarian organizations to jump in with little support to rescue our situation,” he pleaded.
Rugeya Mustafa Mohammed, the daughter of the former Aweil town mayor, said the incident happened just after she arrived from a local market.
“I was coming from the market and the fire started in my presence and we are about four families living here. We did not manage to rescue anything,” Mustafa said. “People tried their best to rescue property in vain the blaze was too huge.”
She added: “My request to the government and partners is to provide fire extinguishers so that people can be helped if there is a tragedy. Our current situation is so dire and we do not have anything at the movement. My husband’s official documents were all destroyed.”
For his part, Aweil Town Mayor Garang Deng Diing, said he was not aware of the incident.
“I did not receive any complaint at all. Maybe it will be reported to my office later on,” Mayor Deng said.