Four girls dead after sharing oranges at Kampala school; police suspect poisoning
By the time the vomiting started, eight girls had already finished the oranges. Within a day, four of them were dead.
Police in Uganda are treating the deaths of four pupils from Ta’aliim Primary School and Quran Memorisation Centre in Kampala as a possible poisoning. The girls, aged between nine and 11, died on Tuesday. Three of them were at home when they died. The fourth died in hospital while doctors were trying to save her.
According to the school, a classmate had brought oranges and handed them around, and eight pupils ate them. Five later fell ill with vomiting, including all four who died. The fifth remains in hospital.
The school’s head teacher has been arrested to help detectives with their inquiries, and the compound has been sealed off as a crime scene. Post-mortem examinations are under way to establish what killed the children. A police spokesperson told local media that detectives plan to travel to the village where the oranges came from, a step that suggests investigators want to trace the fruit back to its source.
Videos circulating in Ugandan media show bereaved parents recounting their daughters’ last hours. Some accuse the school of being slow and unclear in telling them what was happening. Police have extended condolences to the families and the wider community and promised further updates.
The deaths come amid growing unease about safety in Ugandan schools. Earlier incidents involving suspected contaminated food or exposure to harmful substances have sent pupils to hospital with stomach pain, vomiting and breathing problems, and they have prompted calls for tighter oversight of school feeding programmes, better hygiene standards and safer environments for children.
Source: BBC
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