Yanomami Crisis in Brazil Sparked Outrage; Indigenous People Killed by Disease, Mining

The Yanomami tribe in Brazil is dying, and the crisis has sparked outrage.

Yanomami Tribe Crisis in Brazil

Around 30,000 Yanomami people live in Brazil's largest indigenous territory. The area is around the size of Portugal, stretching across Roraima and Amazonas states in the northwest corner of Brazil's Amazon. Some of them live in southern Venezuela.

The Yanomami tribe feeds themselves by hunting, fishing and growing crops. They move from one area to another, allowing the soil to regenerate.

According to the environmental news outlet Sumaúma, there is a 29% increase in death among children under 5 years old compared to the previous years. The Yanomami kids are also malnourished.

According to the reports, six out of 10 children under 5 are malnourished. In 2022, six children less than a year old died from causes that could have been preventable if they had access to health services or medicine, Mongabay reported.

The outlet noted that the actual figures might be much higher than reported. Fiona Watson, director of research and advocacy at Survival International, an NGO that champions Indigenous rights, told Mongabay that deaths and cases are underreported. She added that the deaths related to malaria and malnutrition are much higher.

What are the Causes of the Yanomami Crisis?

According to Phys.org, there were two causes - disease and mining. Eight of 10 kids aged 5 or under had chronic malnutrition, based on a study in two Yanomami regions by UNICEF and the Brazilian state health research institute Fiocruz. There were also 44 069 cases of malaria in two years, suggesting that the entire population was infected, with some being contaminated more than once.

According to the Health Ministry data obtained by Sumauma, at least 570 Yanomami children died from untreated diseases during Bolsonaro's term from 2019 to 2022.

Mining is another factor that affected the Yanomami people. There were reports that the miners took control of health facilities and airstrips in Yanomami territory for their use.

According to Júnior Hekurari Yanomami, president of the Yanomami local health council, in a tweet last March, miners destroyed their rivers, forest and children. He said their air was no longer pure, their game was disappearing, and they were crying out for clean water. He added that their tribe wanted to live in peace, and they wanted their territory back.

Brazil's President Called Yanomami Crisis a Genocide

Brazil's new president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was upset about the ordeal affecting the Yanomami tribe. He called the crisis a genocide and promised to address the problem with long-term actions.

In a tweet, Lula said the issue affecting the Yanomami people is more than a humanitarian crisis. He said what he observed in Roraima, one of the 26 states of Brazil's north region, was a genocide. The politician said a task force of Brasília and Boa Vista experts is already working together on an action plan to prevent more deaths within the Yanomami Indigenous Territory. He assured the people that "There will be no more genocides."

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