A significant number of vendors at the Serekunda Sandinka market are left with barely anything after a nighttime fire outbreak swept through the area, destroying goods.

The piles of mangled goods are evident as affected vendors arrived at the scene only to find their stalls and shops destroyed by the fire.

Mustapha Wadda lost his fruit shop, valued at three hundred thousand dalasis.

“I lost everything”, he told Gambiana, while pleading with the government for urgent assistance.

As rumours suggest that an electric spark may have caused the fire, Mr. Wadda dismissed such claims, instead blaming the fire on a cigarette butt.

“I suspect the fire may have been caused by a cigarette butt,” he added.

Another affected shopkeeper, Neneh Camara, blamed the Kanifing Municipal Council for the fire, stating that the Sandinka market has been left in a deteriorating state.

“We are being ignored by the Kanifing Municipal Council. We have nothing here provided by the council, not even clean running water,” she said.

Abdoulie Jallow, whose stall was also destroyed, appealed for support.

By Adama Makasuba