


More than 160 poor villagers from Nigeria's north have died from lead poisoning while trying to leach gold from rock deposits, sparking evacuations as health officials try to come to grips with a crisis six months in the making, authorities say.
Dr Henry Akpan, Nigeria's chief epidemiologist, said 100 of the dead were children from five villages in Zamfara state, a near-desert region of the Sahel that has seen a growing food crisis over recent weeks.
Akpan said the children either played near the leaching process or took part in it, swallowing the lead by putting their hands in their mouths or breathing it in.
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