Five family members killed in tent in Wau

At least five bodies were found in a tent on the east bank of Wau in Western Bahr el Ghazal state on Sunday morning.

They are suspected to have died of suffocation after sleeping in a tent that caught fire.

Reports from the Wau Teaching Hospital confirmed that the deceased were an elderly man and an elderly woman and three children, who died of suffocation.

The deceased’s son, Santino Deng, told Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday that the victims closed all the windows of the tent where they slept and lit a fire before going to bed, which may have led to their deaths.

“When we came to open the tent in the morning, we found that there was not enough oxygen inside. We called the police, the prosecutor came, and the police took the bodies to the hospital,” he explained. “The doctor did an autopsy and found no signs that they had been beaten. The doctor said that the cause of death was 90% due to lack of oxygen.”

Deng added: “What I would say to people living in tents is to make sure that the tents are ventilated.”

The Western Bahr el Ghazal State Police Commissioner, Major General James Simon Yasi, confirmed the incident in an interview and said investigations were ongoing.

“On July 14, an incident occurred in the East Bank where five people died of suffocation. They were living in tents, so people thought there was something wrong with the tents,” he said. “The cause of death of these five people is unknown. We sent the bodies to the hospital for doctors to examine. The doctors will tell us the specific results and the cause of death in the tents.”

General Yasi added: “The East Coast Police Station has opened a case and is conducting a joint investigation with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). We are currently awaiting the results of the autopsy at the hospital.”