BRAZIL – The Brazilian government has declared a health emergency for the Yanomami in the Amazon who are suffering from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria as a result of illegal mining.
The decree, signed late Friday by Health Minister Nisia Trindade, has no expiration date and allows for additional staff to be hired. It stipulates that the responsible team must publish reports on the health and general well-being of the indigenous group.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has also set up a multi-ministerial committee that will be coordinated by his chief of staff for an initial period of 90 days. He travels to the Roraima state capital, Boa Vista, where many sick Yanomami have been admitted to specialized hospitals.
The Yanomami are the largest indigenous group in Brazil, with a population of about 30,000 living in more than 9 million hectares (22 million acres) in the northern reaches of the Amazon rainforest near the border with Venezuela.
In recent years, specialists had sounded the alarm as a humanitarian and sanitary crisis loomed. The Yanomami Under Attack report, authored by the nonprofit Socio-Environmental Institute, indicates that the region was responsible for 50% of the country’s malaria cases in 2021. According to the same report, more than 3,000 children were malnourished.
Illegal mining is the main cause of the Yanomami’s problems. Activists accuse miners of death threats, sexual violence, and alcohol and drug abuse, particularly against tribal children. The same report shows that more than 40 illegal airstrips were built by miners in the region and that they had taken over some of the state health centers set up in the region.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health had already designated a team for a special health mission in the Yanomami region. Lula planned an emergency trip to Roraima state after independent local news website Sumauma published shocking images of malnourished children.
According to the report, in the last four years of former President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, the number of deaths among children under the age of five has increased by 29% compared to the previous administration. The same report shows that between 2019 and 2022, 570 Yanomami children died from curable diseases.
Lula tweeted that the government had received information about the “absurd situation” of malnutrition among Yanomami children. The President is accompanied by several of his ministers in Boa Vista.
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