Uganda has stopped nationwide distribution of a United Nations food supplement called Super Cereal after two people died and more than 90 others came down with food poisoning, VOA news reports.
The fortified porridge is suspected of making people in the northeastern Karamoja region ill last week.
“A big number of those were hospitalized with mental confusion and vomiting,” Ugandan Disaster Preparedness Minister Musa Ecweru said Monday.
Victims include 12 children younger than five.
The World Food Program, which sent the cereal along with sugar and oil to the Ugandan region, has not confirmed reports of the deaths. But it said it treats the situation with “extreme urgency.”
It has sent samples of the cereal to laboratories for tests.
The WFP said Super Cereal “aims to improve nutrition among pregnant or breastfeeding women by preventing stunting or treating life-threatening malnutrition.”