At least 28 children aged under five have died in the latest case of lead poisoning in Rafi council area of Niger state, the federal health ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
They include 17 boys and 11 girls, according to minister of state for health Fidelis Nwankwo.
The dead are among 65 children who took ill on 12 May.
A scoping mission by a team from the ministries of health and mines and steel development found people affected had lead in their system 22 times higher than allowed for safety limits.
Authorities have blamed illegal mining in unapproved sites where lead concentration is higher.
Previous lead poisoning among familes mining gold in Zamfara killed hundreds of children.
But Dr Abdulsalam Nasidi, director-general of Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, said the Niger sites have “more lead than what we have in Zamfara, hence the need to act urgently.”
“This epidemic is worse than what we saw in Zamfara,” said Dr Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, director of port health services who led an eight-man epidemiology team to Niger.
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