Brazil’s government has declared a public health emergency for the Yanomami people in the Amazon who are suffering from malnutrition and diseases such as malaria as a consequence of illegal mining.
The decree, signed by Health Minister Nisia Trindade late on Friday (last night NZ time), has no expiration date and allows for hiring extra personnel. It determines that the team in charge has to publish reports regarding the indigneous group’s health and general wellbeing.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also created a multi-ministerial committee, to be co-ordinated by his chief of staff, for an initial period of 90 days. He is travelling to Roraima state’s capital, Boa Vista, where many ill Yanomami have been admitted to specialised hospitals.
The Yanomami are the largest native group in Brazil, a population of around 30,000 that lives in an area larger than 9 million hectares in the northern area of the Amazon rainforest, close to the border with Venezuela.
In recent years, specialists had sounded the alarm about a humanitarian and sanitary crisis taking shape. The report “Yanomami Under Attack”, written by the nonprofit Socio-Environmental Institute, points out that in 2021 the region was responsible for 50 per cent of the malaria cases in the country. The same report said that more than 3000 children were malnourished.
