Tag: informal mining

The Amazon
Ecuador

Israel, UAE to assist Ecuador drug war

Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa says he is seeking assistance from Israel and the United Arab Emirates to combat the drug cartels that are terrorizing the South American country. The hardline rightist who won re-election last month said Israel and the UAE have agreed to provide intelligence aid “to help” fight the narco gangs. A day after Noboa’s comments, Ecuadoran authorities announced that 11 soldiers were killed while carrying out an operation to combat illegal mining in a region near the border with Colombia. The Prosecutor General’s office said the troops were attacked by the Comandos de la Frontera, a “dissident” faction of Colombia’s FARC guerillas that controls cross-border drug trafficking and illegal gold-mining operations in the eastern province of Orellana. (Photo: Presidencia de la República del Ecuador via WikimediaCommons)

The Andes
Pataz

Peru: emergency measures against illegal mining

The bodies of 13 security guards at a major Peruvian gold mine were found a week after the men were abducted from the site. Poderosa, the Peruvian company that owns and operates the mine in the northern province of Pataz, La Libertad region, confirmed the deaths after a police search-and-rescue unit recovered their bodies. Poderosa said the guards “were cruelly murdered by criminals allied with illegal mining.” In response, President Dina Boluarte has instated a curfew in Pataz province, and announced that the armed forces will take full control of the area around the mining concession. A new military base will be also established in the area. Boluarte additionally said that she will ask Congress for extraordinary powers to crack down on criminal networks, and have their activities defined as “terrorism.” (Photo: Comando Unificado Pataz via Mining.com)

South Asia
Sentinelese

Isolated people under threat in Andaman Islands

A US national was arrested on North Sentinel Island, in India’s remote Andaman & Nicobar archipelago, for illegally seeking to make contact with the isolated Sentinelese people, an officially designated “particularly vulnerable tribal group” (PVTG). London-based Survival International expressed relief at the arrest, but called the news deeply disturbing, saying the adventurer’s actions “put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” due to their lack of immunity to common outside diseases. Within days of the arrest, a journalist with local news channel Republic Andaman was found dead—apparently targeted for his reportage on illegal logging and mining in the archipelago. And far greater threats loom; Survival warns that isolated peoples could be wiped out if New Delhi goes ahead with its plan to transform Great Nicobar Island into the “Hong Kong of India,” with massive new port facilities and rapid urbanization. (Photo: Survival International)

The Amazon
Rio Santiago

Peru: ’emergency’ of illegal mining in Amazon

Leaders of the Autonomous Territorial Government of the Wampís Nation (GTANW) in Peru denounced the use of local children as “human shields” to protect illegal mining activities and demanded the declaration of a state of emergency in the northern Amazon region. GTANW president Teófilo Kukush Pati said that when the police and armed forces carry out interdictions at mining sites, illegal miners forcibly gather community children to defend their operations. The leader also reported that the illegal mining outfits threaten to kill opponents. Pati stressed that the mercury produced by illegal mining in the Santiago River basin contaminates waters, which local communities depend on for fishing and drinking. The statement came as Pati arrived in Lima to meet with the government’s high commissioner for the fight against illegal mining. (Photo: JYB Devot via Wikimedia Commons)

Africa
DRC

EU complicity seen in DR Congo atrocities

The European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the EU to freeze direct budget support to Rwanda until it ceases backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and permits humanitarian access in rebel-held territory of the DRC. The resolution also recommended suspending agreements related to Rwandan strategic minerals until Rwanda halts its interference in Congo. However, this resolution is non-binding, and the European Commission has not enforced these recommendations. Rights groups charge that the EU’s inaction undermines efforts to hold perpetrators accountable and deepens the escalating humanitarian crisis in the region. The M23 rebels, with apparent Rwandan support, have seized key cities in eastern DRC, including Goma and Bukavu, leading to mass displacement and severe human rights abuses. (Map: PCL)

Southeast Asia
Regime Airstrikes

Burma: deadly junta air-strikes escalate

Junta air-strikes killed over 170 people across Burma in January, a fourfold increase over the previous month, according to an analysis by The Irrawaddy, an independent exile-based newspaper that maintains a network of reporters on the ground. The strikes hit villages, health facilities, a prison and a gold mine in various areas held by the resistance, although most of those killed were civilians. More than 1,800 people have been killed in air-strikes since the February 2021 coup. (Image: The Irrawaddy)

Africa
DRC

Chaos in Congo as M23 seize Goma

In a dramatic escalation of the ongoing conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the M23 rebels seized Goma, the capital of North Kivu province on the Rwandan border. The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting to discuss the situation, with the DRC accusing Rwanda of sending hundreds of troops across the border to support the M23. The DRC is calling for an arms embargo on Rwanda, and sanctions on its mineral exports. The fall of Goma has sparked protests in the DRC capital, Kinshasa, with foreign embassies vandalized and set on fire, including those of Rwanda, South Africa, the US, Belgium and France. Amid the turmoil, President Felix Tshisekedi has promised a counter-offensive to retake Goma. The DRC’s reliance on foreign mercenaries in the war in the east has drawn sharp criticism. Reports indicate that around 2,000 mercenaries, mostly from Eastern European countries such as Romania, have been hired to fight the M23. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Sudan

Sudan: US holds RSF responsible for ‘genocide’

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and allied militias have committed genocide during the country’s ongoing civil war. This would mark the second genocide Sudan has seen in less than three decades, following the Darfur genocide of the early 2000s. Blinken’s statement outlined atrocities perpetrated by the RSF, including ethnically targeted massacres of men, boys and infants, as well as widespread sexual violence inflicted upon women and girls. In tandem with the genocide determination, the US imposed sanctions on RSF leader Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa, also known as Hemedti, and seven RSF-linked companies based in the UAE. Hemedti, a former leader of the Janjaweed militia responsible for the Darfur genocide, faces visa restrictions barring him and his immediate family from entering the US. The sanctions also target the RSF’s alleged smuggling of gold to fund operations. (Map: PCL)

Africa
Africa mining

DRC: coltan profits fuel M23 insurgency

The M23 armed group is continuing to pursue expansionist objectives across eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to a report by UN experts. The report underscores the failure of peace talks held between DRC and Rwanda (which supports the rebels) under the aegis of Angola. It argues that the M23 plans the long-term occupation and exploitation of conquered territories, where it has been setting up parallel administrations and recruiting thousands of new members, including children. It states that the group has been consolidating support from other armed movements in Ituri, South Kivu and North Kivu provinces, forging non-aggression pacts and building new proxy forces. The rebels are also making a large profit from taxing mineral production, especially at the Rubaya mining sites in North Kivu, one of the world’s largest sources of coltan. The minerals are being “fraudulently exported” to Rwanda in what amounts to the “largest contamination” of mineral supply chains recorded in the region to date. (Photo via Africa Up Close)

The Amazon
Amazon

Amazon wildfires release record greenhouse emissions

The Amazon rainforest has seen a record-setting wildfire season this year, fueled by an historic drought and scorching temperatures. In Brazil, the cumulative total estimated carbon emissions from the fires so far in 2024 has reached 183 megatons, according to Europe’s Copernicus atmospheric monitoring service—equivalent to the total annual emissions of the Netherlands. The unprecedented fires come even as overall deforestation (defined as the permanent conversion of forest for another use, such as logging, mining or farming) has dropped in Brazil since President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva took office in January 2023. Fires now account for a much higher proportion of forest loss. (Photo: Marizilda Cruppe/Greenpeace via Mongabay)

Africa
Africa mining

Appeals court dismisses child labor case against Big Tech

The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia dismissed a child labor case against technology companies and refused to hold them accountable for complicity in the use of children in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Former cobalt miners and their representatives filed a lawsuit against Alphabet (Google), Apple, Dell Technologies, Tesla and Microsoft under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (TVPRA). The TVPRA penalizes anyone who “knowingly benefits financially from participating in a venture that engaged in trafficking crimes.” They claimed that the companies were involved in a “venture” with their suppliers that engaged in forced labor of children to obtain the metal. The court rejected these claims and dismissed the lawsuit, upholding a lower court’s decision. (Photo via Africa Up Close)

Africa
wagner group

‘Blood gold,’ diamonds behind Russian war effort

Gold-mining operations in Africa under the control of the paramilitary Wagner Group are funneling money to the Kremlin for the Russian war effort in Ukraine, according to a new report by watchdog organizations. “The Blood Gold Report,” prepared by the Consumer Choice Center and Democracy 21, finds that Wagner has laundered some $2.5 billion in proceeds from its African operations since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, helping Moscow to ride out international sanctions. In the Central African Republic, Wagner is said to have exclusive operational control over the country’s largest gold mine at Ndassima in return for its services in propping up the regime. The European Union meanwhile announced  sanctions on Russia’s state-owned diamond giant Alrosa and its CEO, citing their “long-standing partnership with the Russian Armed Forces.” (Photo of CAR army troops wearing the Wagner Group insignia via Corbeau News Centrafrique)