Dehai News

The amount of money lost was unspecified but Jonglei State police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Elia Costa told Sudans Post on Sunday that “a lot of money in millions” and other valuable assets were burned in a total of 6 shops burned.

“Yesterday [Saturday] at 2:30 AM we received a call from the Bor main market, Marol Market, that there is a fire break out burning shops and then we move there then we found that the shops that were burned are about 6,” he said.

He said that a man, a Eritrean trader, who was sleeping in one of the shops were burned to death by the fire which he said started from a restaurant of an unidentified woman.

“There was a man and his son who were sleeping in the shop and two of them were burned to death by the fir. The fire started from a restaurant where a woman left beans cooking on the fire during the night and that is the main cause of the fire outbreak,” he added.

General Costa said that fire brigade in Jonglei State lack equipment to rescue such situations.

“You know the situation of fire brigade here for us here. The fire brigade has no car, so we just try to call those of water tanks and then they came and try to rescue the situation after many shops were burned,” he said.

Costa further said the investigation on how much damage has been made are being carried on saying there is a huge damage caused by the fire.

“The owners of the shops opened a case against the owner of the restaurant where the fire started so the investigations are still going on so that we know how much is damaged,” he said.

He added that the man and his son who lost there lives are from the Eritrean community and that they did not comply with police directives for traders not to sleep in their shops in the market during night times.

“Most people that sleep in their shops are foreigners like the man and his son are from Eritrea so they use to sleep there and there is an order issued by local authorities warning people against sleeping in the shops,” he said.