Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/BRASILIA: Brazil’s ministry of health has declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami – a group of indigenous people residing in the Amazon – amid reports of children dying of malnutrition and other diseases as a consequence of illegal gold mining.
A decree published on Friday by the new government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the declaration was aimed at restoring health facilities to the Yanomami people that had been discontinued by Lula’s far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
During four years of Bolsonaro’s government, 570 children died of curable illnesses, mainly malnutrition as well as malaria, diarrhea and malformations caused by mercury used by wildcat gold miners, reported the Amazon journalism platform Sumauma citing data obtained by a FOIA.
Lula on Saturday visited a Yanomami health centre in Boa Vista in Roraima state following the publication of photos showing children and elderly people so thin their ribs were visible.
Ex-govt committed Yanomami’s genocide: Lula
Describing his visit, Lula said in a tweet that what he saw was a “genocide” and “premeditated crime against the Yanomami,” committed by the previous government.
The government announced food packages for the community that will be transported to the country’s largest indigenous reservation bordering Venezuela where some 26,000 Yanomamis reside in a region of rainforest and tropical savanna as big as Portugal.
For decades, illegal gold miners for decades have been invading the reservation, but the incursions further increased since Bolsonaro took office in 2018 promising to allow mining on lands previously protected and offering to legalize wildcat mining.
