MAPUTO. Mozambique - At least 56 people including a toddler
in the north-west of Mozambique have died from apparent poisoning after
consuming traditional beer known as “phombe”, local authorities said Sunday.Carla Mosse, director of health for the province of Tete, told Radio Mocambique that 39 people remained hospitalised Sunday after suffering the same type of beer poisoning that caused the first deaths Saturday morning.
All the victims, including a two-year-old child participated in a funeral Friday during which they apparently drank the traditional beer made from millet bran, the Mozambique paper A Verdade reported.
The exact cause of the contamination remains unknown, but the woman who brewed the “phombe” and several members of her family were among the victims, Radio Mocambiquereported
“It’s the first time we’ve faced such a tragedy,” said
Mosse, who added that samples of the poisoned beer, blood, urine and gastric
fluids have been taken and are being sent to the capital Maputo and South
Africa for analysis.Mozambique’s government declared three days of national mourning in a decree published Sunday evening.
Source: – AFP
Post a Comment