Sierra Leone: Scramble for rejected chicken imports buried in the capital

Thousands of residents in the Sierra Leonean capital Freetown trooped to a landfill site on Saturday to dig up rejected chickens imported from Brazil and buried by health authorities.

The chickens were imported from Brazil on July 12 by a businessman, but were rendered unfit for human consumption by the country’s health services. The carcasses were then buried at a landfill site in Freetown.

The country’s health ministry said it fears food poisoning and contamination as thousands of people besieged the site to recover some of the carcasses.

Clashes ensued prompting the police to use tear gas and rubber bullets to try to prevent people from carrying the chickens covered with mud and buried in the middle of “human waste, household garbage and industrial waste water”.

The crowd clashed with the police with some sustaining minor injuries as they insisted on taking the spoiled chickens. Forty people were arrested after the clashes, AFP reports.

Local media reports indicate that the people started taking the rotten chicken since Friday and it is already being consumed.

Civil society organizations have called for an investigation into the matter and demanded the arrest of the importer of the chickens.

Photo Credit: makonitimes.com