BY SOLOMON HYDARA, OUR SEATTLE CORRESPONDENT

Health officials in The Gambian provincial town of Basse are increasingly worried about a major health pandemic which sent dozens of students collapsing. It is gathered that a good number of students suffered from this dreadful disease, which is being blamed to devil work. In view of the seriousness of the epidemic, school authorities in that region have declared nine schools closed, the Freedom Newspaper was reliably informed.

School authorities say the schools will not be opened until further notice. According to reports reaching this paper, over 90 students from various schools went collapsed and some passed away during the hours of Monday evening and Tuesday. The incident happened before the student started having lessons.

The Freedom Newspaper gathered that the first incident happen at ST.Culbert and ST.Joseph's schools respectively. The disease said our sources quickly spread like a wild fire to other neighboring schools in the area. One of such schools badly hit by the dreadful disease was Koba Kunda, where a good number girls reportedly died. Most of the deaths were between the ages of 12 and 20.

Speaking to one of the students in basse via phone the student said many people in the area blamed the incident to devil work as some one in the village cut a tree, which seems to have sparked the epidemic, with the devils reacting negatively. The student told our reporter that the tree was in one of the schools in that region, which belongs to “Jinehs” or devils. “It is widely believed that the devils lived in that tree. Now that the tree is on longer there, the devils are homeless and resorted to cursing the schools in the area. Many people here blamed the incident to the cutting of the tree.“ said the student. The villagers are hopeful that once they take out cow as a charity the disease will be put under control.

Meanwhile, parents in the area are increasingly worried about the situation. They said they don’t want their children to go back to school for now, until the health problem was put under control. Meanwhile, over 30 students are currently hospitalized at the Basse Health Centre. Nurse Bakary Kongira told our reporter that the situation was very worrying. “We will do our best to help the patients.” said Nurse Kongira.