Ricin mixed into the flour? Cyanide? Hard to believe that simple cassava flour did this alone.
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~mathewsc/Cassava.html
in my last post it should be spelled Abu Sayyaf
The author of this article is not familiar with casaba, known as yuca in this country. He says, should be cooked properly Heck, there is only one way to cook it. It is to boil it whether in soup or plain water (like one boils a potato). If it is cooked in plain water, it is then generally sliced and fried; or it is mashed (after boiling of course), filled with a meat filling (like a taco), and then into the frying pan to deep fry. These children did not get sick from the casaba unless poison was added to it. They got sick from the filling.
Fox News had a report on this last night. It seems that when casava is prepared, it's possible to do a bad job of cleaning it and leave cyanide residue, cyanide being a naturally occurring part of some of the casava plant.