Purported tukul where three family member died /courtesy

Seven South Sudanese children were rescued after a teen girl set a house on fire over starvation,according to the Chairperson of Ayilo One Refugee settlement in Northern Uganda.

On Saturday, the unnamed South Sudanese girl believed to be 17, reportedly locked herself with six other minors inside the house and set the house on fire.

The incident happened at around 8 pm at Bloc E of Ayilo One camp.

“She called the children and put them inside where they normally sleep, after she found that the children had slept, she entered the room and also locked the inner door and burned the house,” Daniel Alier Manyok, the Chairperson of Bloc E narrated, adding that is where the neighbors found the flame of the fire and came for rescue”.

The girl reportedly lost her father in July 2020, and her mother recently came to South Sudan to look for a job.
Manyok said the girl told the police during an investigation she was unable to provide meals to her siblings after her mother failed to send them money.

“The problem is food, they were suffering. According to her, they took three days without eating the food. Finally, she decided to commit suicide with the children,” according to Manyok.

At Ayilo One Refugee settlement, some refugees receive 19,000 Uganda Shillings – an equivalent to 2,300 pounds, in food ration monthly.

Others receive 3kilograms of food ratios per a month.

One refugee settlement was established in July 2014 to host the influx of South Sudanese refugees after the violence of 2013.

In May last year, the United Nations World Food Program said it was facing an 86-million-U.S. dollar funding shortfall for feeding 1.27 million refugees in Uganda.

WFP said it was forced to reduce the refugees’ rations by 30 percent in April 2020, and then by an additional 10 percent in February 2021 due to a decline in funding since 2019.