Category: Lifestyle

Terror attacks on gold mining operations in Burkina Faso are becoming a regular occurrence. For VOA, reporter Henry Wilkins looks at the impact the attacks are having on the lives of survivors and what it could mean if extracting gold, the country’s primary source of income, becomes too dangerous.

“Boukare,” whose name has been changed to protect his identity, is a survivor of the Yirgou massacre.

The attack by an unknown terror group in June this year targeted a small informal gold mining site, like this one, and killed at least 160 people, mostly mine workers.

Boukare was hiding on the roof of a building, from where he could see women and children moving around. At first, he thought they were being kidnapped by the attackers and then realized they were carrying out the attack themselves. “When they finished shooting, it was around 4:30 a.m. and then they started to burn [buildings and vehicles],” he said.

Burkina Faso is the fastest growing producer of gold in Africa. While informal mining is estimated to employ and indirectly support about 3 million people, large-scale commercial mining by foreign companies brought in $300 million of revenue for the government in 2018.

But as groups linked to Islamic State, al-Qaida and bandits have stepped up attacks on miners, extracting gold is seen as increasingly dangerous.

Since August, there have been two attacks on convoys belonging to iamgold, a company headquartered in Canada, and another one on a convoy owned by Endeavour Mining, headquartered in the Cayman Islands. The attacks left six dead.

 

‘Salam,’ whose identity we also have protected, survived an assault on a mining convoy on the same route in 2019. He played dead as terrorists killed 40 of his colleagues.

 

He now works for a different company, but said that many of his colleagues are wary of the mines.

 

They no longer want to take the convoys along the road to the mine, because it has become too dangerous. He says that after the last attack military police were able to kill two terrorists. “The terrorists are going to want revenge. They are going to want revenge,” he said.

In recent weeks, mining companies in Burkina Faso have begun transporting local employees to mines by air instead of by road. Previously, only foreign staff flew to the mines.

 

But some logistics still must be done by road.

 

Liam Morrissey, CEO of MS risk, a security consultant that works with mining companies operating in Burkina Faso, said the attacks could spell trouble for the industry.

 

“The producing mines have regular convoy activity to keep their mines supplied: crew rotations, consumables, parts, plant and equipment and so on. So, we have seen, correspondingly, with this spike of incidents through the wet season, incidents involving convoys. Now, they haven’t been devastating, not yet,” he said.

 

Asked if deteriorating security might force some companies to pull out of Burkina Faso, Paul Melly of London-based Chatham House said no – at least for the time being.

 

“Burkina Faso is now one of the most important gold producing countries in Africa, and the large number of investors who’ve come in over recent years and the large number of mines that have opened up, point to the economic attractions, so I don’t imagine that companies would take a decision to pull out very easily,” said Melly.

 

Analysts say major disruption to the gold mining industry could have far-reaching impacts for the already fragile state.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Climate change-related disasters, such as prolonged drought, floods and locust infestations, have displaced thousands of Somali farmers from their land, threatening food security in the Horn of the African nation.

Somalia contributes less than 0.003% of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere — but the impact of global warming is evident in the well-being of the country’s herders and farmers.

Fatuma Ibrahim Aden, a mother of eight, is among thousands of farmers currently living in a displaced persons camp in Mogadishu, after her family’s livestock succumbed to the escalating drought in Qoryoley in the lower Shabelle region.

She says prolonged drought and lack of water that killed their livestock forced her extended family to the city four months ago. She added that they have not experienced such recurring famine in recent years.

Ibrahim Dagane Ali, a Somali agriculture and resilience specialist, says there is need for new strategies to mitigate the impact of such events on the lives of the farmers.

“Without getting assistance of climate investment and installation of climate smart technologies, it will be difficult. Plus, other issues of environmental conservation, regenerative agriculture, use of renewable energy, all these elements. But above all, we need to educate our people, and to do that it is the sole responsibility of the government to stand up and address this,” Ali said.

The Somali government has called upon richer nations emitting most of the greenhouse gases to act swiftly as the COP26 climate conference continues in Glasgow.

“Somalia and other poor countries are paying with their lives and livelihoods for a problem of not our making,” said Somalia’s Deputy Prime Minister Mahdi Mohamed Gulaid. “It is therefore our loud call to the countries emitting the most to start acting on the issue, especially so now that we know what the problem is, and we know actions needed.”

The world’s richest countries once pledged to deliver $100 billion per year to help developing nations cope with climate change — a pledge that has never been met.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Malawi’s parliament Monday welcomed the country’s first ever elected albino lawmaker when it reconvened after months of recess. The presence of Overstone Kondowe in Malawi’s national assembly, is seen as a victory for albinos who have faced attacks in this southern African country since 2014.

 

Until last Thursday, when he took the oath of office in the capital, Lilongwe, Kondowe was President Lazarus Chakwera’s special adviser on persons with albinism and disabilities.

 

The move, following a by-election two weeks ago, comes amid continued attacks on people with albinism in Malawi.

 

Police records show that in the last four months, there were seven attacks on albinos, including killings, attempted abductions and physical violence. Separately, grave robbers have exhumed corpses to retrieve albinos’ bodies.

 

Kondowe is also the former president of the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi or APAM. He says that as a lawmaker in the national assembly, he will pursue his fight against incidents targeting albinos.

 

“Let me assure them that I will do to the maximum of my potential to make sure that we should also have programs, like what South Africa put in place,” said Kondowe. “I am ready to do that. And I have also demonstrated my ability to do so when I was acting outside the system. Now, that I am in the center of the system, I am sure change is coming, not tomorrow, but today.”

 

The statistics show that since 2014, more than 170 albinos have been attacked in Malawi because of false beliefs that concoctions mixed with their body parts bring luck and wealth.

 

To help stop the attacks, Malawian courts have imposed stiffer punishments on perpetrators.

 

For example, two weeks ago, the High Court in northern Malawi sentenced two men to life in prison with hard labor for killing a 54-year-old albino.

 

Young Muhamba is the current president of the APAM.

 

He says the election of Kondowe to parliament sends a clear message that albinos are equal to other Malawians.

 

“We will be developing some bill to do with people with albinism,” said Muhamba. “So, he will be the first voice there in parliament. He will be the first person to table the bill and to support it and also make others support it. So, he will be like our voice.”

 

Muhamba says the association is currently pushing the government to start implementing its program of constructing houses for people with albinism as a security measure.

 

Simon Munde is acting executive director of the Federation of Disability Organization in Malawi.

 

Munde says he believes that Kondowe, a member of the ruling Malawi Congress Party, will also represent people with disabilities.

 

“We have faith in him,” said Munde. “The fact that he is quite an advocate, he has even done it when he was presidential adviser on disabilities, and we are not doubting in any way that that kind of spirit will continue with it as now he will be able to speak within the legislative assembly.”

 

Munde said the election of Kondowe to parliament should send a message to other public or private institutions that disability does not equate to inability.

 

Source: Voice of America