Brazil declares emergency over deaths of Yanomami children from malnutrition
3 minute read
January 22, 20233:18 PM CST Last Updated 2 hours ago
Reuters
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva looks on as he visits the Yanomami Indigenous Health House (CASA Yanomami) in Boa Vista, Roraima state, Brazil January 21, 2023. Ricardo Stuckert/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
BRASILIA, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Brazil's ministry of health has declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory, the country's largest indigenous reservation bordering Venezuela, following reports of children dying of malnutrition and other diseases caused by illegal gold mining.
A decree published on Friday by the incoming government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said the aim of the declaration was to restore health services to the Yanomami people that had been dismantled by his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.
In four years of Bolsonaro's presidency, 570 Yanomami children died of curable diseases, mainly malnutrition but also malaria, diarrhea and malformations caused by mercury used by wildcat gold miners, the Amazon journalism platform Sumauma reported, citing data obtained by a FOIA.
Lula visited a Yanomami health center in Boa Vista in Roraima state on Saturday following the publication of photos showing children and elderly men and women so thin their ribs were visible.
"More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering," Lula said on Twitter.
More:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/brazil-declares-emergency-over-deaths-yanomami-children-malnutrition-2023-01-22/
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https://archive.ph/5xj3U#selection-717.0-717.187
