A bottle of local beer, Phombe

At least 50 people in the north-west of Mozambique have died of apparent poisoning after consuming traditional beer known as “phombe,” local authorities said Sunday.

Carla Mosse, director of health for the province of Tete, told Radio Mozambique that 70 people were still hospitalised Sunday after suffering the same type of beer poisoning that caused the first fatalities Saturday morning.

The exact cause of the contamination remains unknown, but the woman who brewed the traditional beer and several members of her family were among the poisoning victims, Radio Mocambique reported.

“It’s the first time we’ve faced such a tragedy,” said a local official who noted that samples of the poisoned beer, blood, urine and gastric fluids have been taken and are being sent to Maputo and South Africa for analysis.