Over 70 people sick with food poisoning after eating Iftar meals served by Turkish organization in northern Idlib, Syria

IDLIB, Syria – Iftar meals provided to residents of a camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northern Idlib, Syria by the Sham Sharif Turkish Organization have caused widespread cases of food poisoning. According to local sources, more than 70 people, mostly women and children, were made sick by the food.

The mass poisoning occurred at the Childhood Care IDP camp in the northern countryside of Idlib Governorate on Monday evening as Muslim families sat for Iftar, the breaking of the daily fast during Ramadan.

Sources from the camp stated that the number of people affected by the poisoning surpassed 70 people, including 31 children and 21 women.

The Sham Sharif Turkish Organization operating in northern Syria distributed Iftar meals consisting of rice, peas, and meat with bottles of yoghurt to all residents of the Childhood Care IDPs camp.

The poisoned people were immediately rushed to hospitals near the Turkish border. Hospital officials said that the meals contained spoiled food as a result of improper storage, possibly during an extended period of exposed to high temperatures after being wrapped and distributed to the people of the camp.

Some activists believe that Sham Sharif Turkish Organization does not follow appropriate safety and security standards and allege that spoiled meals had been presented to the camp residents because material profit was the priority of the organization rather than the safety of the camp’s residents.