(Coming next, as a reply to this post: a story from The Guardian, providing details of the outrageous cover-up that is known today as "Toxic Oil Syndrome".)

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Saturday August 25 9:52 AM ET

Deadly Broth Kills at Least 24 in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - At least 24 people have died in central Ivory Coast after drinking contaminated maize broth and many more are critically ill, police and emergency workers said on Saturday.

The broth was prepared for sale by a woman in the village of Labokro on Thursday morning and within a few hours people who had drunk it began to vomit violently and suffer severe diarrhea.

But it was only after the death of a two-year-old girl in the evening that the cause was traced back to the broth.

``At the moment there are 24 dead but there could well be more,'' an officer of the paramilitary gendarmerie told Reuters from the political capital Yamoussoukro, about 20 miles from Labokro.

Police said they were treating the case as one of involuntary killing and had taken the broth seller into protective custody. Her 80-year-old mother was among the victims.

Officials said they had not identified the poisonous substance in the broth.

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