Up to 900 fall ill after eating expired food at refugee camp near Mosul

MOSUL, Iraq - Up to 900 displaced people fell ill on Monday after eating expired food during Ramadan breaking fast meal at al-Khazir-2 refugee camp near the city of Mosul, an Iraqi official said.

"We have some 900 displaced people from Mosul who are living in al-Khazir-2 camp fell ill after eating their Ramadan breakfast which were presented by a Qatari humanitarian organization," Zaihid al-Khatoni, an Iraqi Member of Parliament for Nineveh province, told reporters in the camp.

The health departments of Arbil and Nineveh province have sent their medic teams to the camp medical centers to help the affected people, "the situation is under control and we have no deaths so far, Khatoni said, adding that many of the affected people are women, children and elderly.

The food was beans, rice, chicken, and a yogurt drink brought from a restaurant in Erbil by the Qatari humanitarian organization. Most of those affected are suffering from vomiting and stomachache, according to the Kurdish Rudaw media network.

Arbil health department sent a medic teams and 30 ambulances to the camp, bringing the most severe cases to hospitals in Arbil and other medical centers, Rudaw said.

The over 1,000-tent Al-Khazir-2 refugee camp is located some 50 km in east of Mosul and was built a few week ago for the civilians who left their homed recently from the western side of Mosul.

For Muslims, Ramadan is considered the holiest month of the Islamic year. The month is characterized by fasting through the entire month from dawn until sunset, as they refrain from eating, drinking and all sinful thoughts and deeds.

Iraqi security forces, backed by the anti-IS international coalition, were simultaneously conducting a major offensive to dislodge IS militants from their remaining redoubt in the western side of Mosul.