Fire broke out in the market of Mayen Ulem Payam, Aweil North County, burning 64 shops and wounding four people last Thursday.

Speaking to Radio Tamazuj, a pharmacist whose private clinic burned to ashes said the fire began in one of the shisha places. He said that cause of the fire was one boy was arguing with another over whether lighting a fire on a jerrycan of benzine would cause it to burn, with one saying it would and the other that it wouldn’t. The boy set fire to the jerrycan of fuel around 1:00 p.m.

The pharmacist said that his clinic is the only clinic recognized by the local government, and provided him a livelihood for the last seven years, allowing him to feed his children and pay their school fees.

Another victim of the fire, a woman who owned a restaurant for the last two years, said that she is now bankrupt. All her belongings burned inside the restaurant including all of the chairs, cooking materials, 39 sacks of sorghum, 23 bags of maize flour and other small materials.

She blamed CID personnel and police forces for not implementing rules given by government authorities. It was announced last month that all shisha shops are banned because of negative impact on the citizens. There has been little compliance to date.

The victim also noted that she had no insurance. “Why does the government not extend the insurance companies to the state level such that people with little works can insure their properties? There were such insurance companies in Khartoum,” she recalled.

Absent outside help she concluded that the government and other organizations should join hands to help those whose shops burnt completely.

Finally, the secretary-general for the payam chamber of commerce says it's the responsibility of government, both national and local, to protect the citizens where they are, to equip the fire brigades. “We registered all the losses and hope for assistance by the government or INGOs so that these people will resume their duties in the market,” he said.