The mysterious disease, which has plagued a village in central Côte d’Ivoire since December, has killed 20 people, mostly children, according to a new report obtained by local sources on Thursday.
• Also read: 12 children mysteriously die within 2 months in an Ivorian village
“By January 26th we were at 12 dead. On Thursday, the death toll increased and we recorded 20 deaths, including two adults,” while “no adult had been reached until then,” explained Paul Kouassi, president of a young people’s association from the village of Kpo-Kahankro, about twenty kilometers away City of Bouaké.
This assessment was confirmed by other residents of the village.
Kouassi said the adults who died were women between the ages of 60 and 70, both of whom died at a Bouaké hospital “after showing the same symptoms as the first deaths, namely vomiting and diarrhea.”
33 residents of Kpo-Kahankro were recently taken to the University Hospital Center (CHU) in Bouaké with similar symptoms, according to hospital sources.
Two ministers had moved to this village in December after the first deaths, and on January 31, Minister of Health Pierre Dimba traveled there to assess the situation, according to Mr Kouassi.
Faced with the mystery of these deaths and awaiting the results of tentative analyses, the thesis of a witch act is put forward in the village.