By Hou Akot Hou
Two children were burned to ashes when a fire gutted a grass-thatched hut at Mangok Payam in Aweil East County, Northern Bahr El Gazal State.
According to the local authorities, the incident occurred on Tuesday night, when the mother of the deceased set out for the nearby home.
Mangok Payam police inspector, Major Garang Mayen said preliminary information indicates that the mother allegedly left the kids, aged around 13 and 11 years old, with their grandmother.
But the grandmother also later went to seek tobacco in the next home, leaving the kids alone in the house.
Maj. Mayen narrated that in the absence of the two adults, the roof caught fire from a burning wood, leading to the burning of the kids to death.
He added that the older child attempted to break free from the burning, but all was in vain as she perished altogether.
“The older child attempted to flee, but she felt down, and the boy felt from behind the tukul inside and was consumed by fire to ashes,” Mayen narrated.
The police inspector said the fire burned the thatched house to ashes.
“It is a grass-thatched house, both the roof and wall,” he stated.
He added that the mother, identified as Anguet Agat Aluk, and her mother are being held by police as the situation gripped the area’s residents and made them feel more irritated by the negligence.
Following the incident, the payam administrator, Mr. Akeen Geng Dut, implores the public to avoid using fire at random, saying the fire-related cases are becoming widespread.
“I want to appeal to the people to know that this season is the worst of all. As children play with fire and wind blows easily, it is common knowledge that it puts people at great disadvantage, akin to what happened now in the case of these children’s burns in the grass-thatched tukul. Always clear your house of grass, he advised.
He noted that the mother of the kids and the grandmother will be arraigned in court to determine the verdict.
Early this month, fire also gutted Maper-Akot-Aru market in Aweil Town, which made people lose properties worth hundreds and thousands of pounds.