[HIGHLIGHTS] Eight children and one adult dead and another 78 people hospitalized after eating sea turtle meat on Zanzibar's Pemba island

Eight children and one adult dead and another 78 people hospitalized. Sea turtle meat is considered a delicacy for Zanzibari residents.

It periodically causes deaths from chelonitoxicism, a type of food poisoning. In November 2021, seven people, including a 3-year-old child, died in Pemba after eating turtle meat, while three others were hospitalized. Authorities in Zanzibia have urged people to avoid eating sea turtles. The dead include the mother of one of the children who succumbed earlier.