'Poisoned' Nigeria village to be dug up

The houses themselves are not being demolished

Heavy machinery is to be used to excavate the soil in a Nigerian village where about 100 children have died from suspected lead poisoning.

Officials say the top 5cm (2in) of soil in the remote northern village of Yar'Gailma is to be dug up.

Twenty-five children from the village have been hospitalised with another 80 set for treatment in the coming days.

At least 163 people have died in the area after residents began digging for gold in areas with high levels of lead.

Health authorities have set up two camps in Zamfara State to treat people who are suffering the symptoms of lead poisoning.

The BBC's Haruna Shehu Tangaza in Zamfara State says that houses in the village will not be demolished - their floors are to be covered in cement to protect residents from lead poisoning.

Rainy season fears

The deaths were discovered during the country's annual immunisation programme, when officials realised there were virtually no children in several villages.

Villagers said the children had died of malaria and it was only when a team from international aid agency Medecins Sans Frontiers took blood tests from local people that the high concentrations of lead were discovered.

Zamfara State had recently employed a Chinese company to mine gold in the area, adds our correspondent.

But villagers had also attempted to capitalise by digging for the precious metal themselves - an illegal activity in Nigeria.

It is likely locals became sick after lead removed during the process of refining gold ore contaminated local water systems, correspondents say.

Some fear the contamination could spread during the rainy season which has just begun, if water washes the lead into new areas.