A 47-year-old woman and three children aged 2, 5, and 7 died in a ghastly fire after their house was set alight by an electric fault on Thursday evening in Wau Town’s Daraja suburb in Western Bahr el Ghazal State.
Mohammed Issa Yusuf, the deputy chief of the Zakawi tribe in Wau Town, on behalf of the bereaved family, said that the deceased were watching television when the house caught fire. He explained that the woman who died with the children was a helper in the household, and the children’s parents were not at home when the incident occurred.
“We really do not understand the cause of the fire, but it was related to an electric shock,” he said. “Their mother was at the house of a neighbor, and their father was also not at home.”
According to Issa, the fire brigade department was called, but they said they did not have fuel and did not come in time. He urged the state government and fire brigade to always be prepared to respond to such emergency incidents.
Efforts to reach the police were futile.