The six young children had just shared snacks bought from a corner store when they began convulsing. The children, all under 8, died moments later, adding more victims to a wave of food poisoning that authorities say has killed nearly two dozen children in a few months.

The South African government on Thursday declared the poisonings a national disaster, taking action after President Cyril Ramaphosa laid out the scale of the danger. At least 890 people have fallen sick, many of them children, he said, adding that the cause was believed to be a pesticide used by business owners and vendors to fight a rat infestation.

After the deaths of the six children in Johannesburg last month, South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases found traces of terbufos, a hazardous pesticide used in agriculture, in the contents and on the packaging of a snack found with one of the children, Ramaphosa said. Terbufos, a colorless or pale yellow liquid is used on crops.

— The New York Times

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