At least nine members of the same family have reportedly died after consuming poisonous porridge.
The children were among 13 members of the same household that passed away after contracting acute food illness in Namibia.
Authorities think the porridge turned hazardous when it was combined with a fermenting byproduct of a home-brewed alcoholic beverage.
It’s believed that at least 20 family members ate the poisonous porridge.
Three girls, age 6, and two other females, age 3 and 12, together with four boys, ages 2, 9, 13, and 14, all died in hospitals.
The adult victims were as old as 33, according to the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation.
Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services confirmed the devastating incident happened in the Kavango East region in the far northeast of the African country on Saturday.
Eight people remain in hospital, with five of those in a critical condition.
A spokesman for the country’s ministry of health said: ‘It is reported that members of a household consumed a poisonous/toxic porridge made with pearl millet mahangu flour and added dried and pounded fermented sediment from homemade beverage/beer, locally known as mundevere.’
The ministry says it conveys its ‘deepest sympathy and condolences to the bereaved family’, who live in the village of Kayove in the Nyangana district.
They added: ‘All the patients are being monitored closely. Additional blood samples were also taken for alcohol poisoning testing.
‘The Ministry of Health and Social Services has deployed a team of social workers to provide psychosocial support and counselling to the bereaved family.
‘Officials from the ministry will provide health education to members of the community on food preparation practices and the dangers of mixing food with potentially contaminated materials.’
Earlier this year, a dad spoke of how he was almost paralysed after eating a curry that gave him catastrophic food poisoning.