An unidentified illness caused the death of at least seven people, five at the University Hospital in the city of Bouake, Cote d'Ivoire, and two in Niangban, a village located about thirty kilometers to the south, media said, referring to a hospital source.
"We have a total of 59 [people] hospitalized at the Bouake University Hospital, mostly children and some adolescents," this source was quoted by the media as saying, noting that the symptoms of the disease are "vomiting" and "diarrhea."
The village chief of Niangban, Emmanuel Kouamé N'Guessan reportedly revealed that "those, who died" were between 5 and 12 years old.
According to the media, one of the possible reasons behind the deaths is supposed to be connected with the contaminated corn porridge, which the children had eaten.
The mother of the first victim, Zitanick Amoin Yao argued that the symptoms of an unknown disease started when her son ate the porridge, the outlet noted.
After an urge to go to the toilet, she said, "he started to vomit when I gave him the medicine that was given to me at the Djebonouan hospital. We went back to the hospital, and they told us to go to the Bouake University Hospital, that’s where he died at the age of three," she was cited by the media as saying.
Another victim's mother Agnes Aya Konan also claimed that she bought the porridge for her daughter, however, the woman refused to blame the seller, the outlet said.
In February, two people were reportedly sentenced to five years in prison in the village of Kpo-Kahankronear near the Bouake city for selling porridge infected with a dangerous bacterium, called clostridium. The bacterium killed 16 people, though villagers claim the true death toll stands at 21.