Egypt summons ministers over students’ food poisoning case

Egypt’s Sohag province’s MPs have demanded forming a fact-finding committee to investigate in the case of school students poisoning, of which 2,340 students were infected.

During the parliament’s general session on Wednesday, headed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives Ali Abdel Aal, the MPs described the case as a “fully-fledged” crime, calling on the public prosecutor to promptly sentence the offender. They also called for interrogating the ministers of education, health and local administration.

The parliament members, Zakaria Hassan, Mahoud Abu Al-Khair, Ahmed Wael, Kahled El-Helali and Ahmed Al-Moshneb, claimed that there were no ambulances available to transfer the students to hospitals at the time of the incident.

Read: Egypt: 1,911 students suspected of having food poisoning

They pointed out that the food stores, where the meals had been kept, were not licensed, adding that those stores lacked the required conditions for a healthy warehousing.

An official source at Sohag’s Education Directorate has stressed that the poisoning has been resulted from a suspicion of drinking water contamination.

On his part, The Governor of Sohag Governorate, Ayman Abdel Moneim, has ordered the respective authorities to conduct a water test on different samples from the schools’ drinking water.

This is not the first incident of food poisoning among school students after eating school meals in Sohag. Less than a month ago, more than 30 students had food poisoning, in addition to 139 others last November in the northern province of Beheira, according to previous Ministry of Health statements.