Brazilian government declares medical emergency in Yanomami

Tags: International News

Recently in Brazil, the government has declared a medical-emergency in the Yanomami region amid reports of child deaths from diseases caused by illegal gold mining and malnutrition-related conditions.

An overview of the news

• The purpose of the state of emergency declaration is to restore health services for the Yanomami people that had come to a standstill during the previous government's tenure.

• In the four years of Bolsonaro's presidency, 570 Yanomami children died from preventable diseases, mainly from malnutrition as well as malaria, diarrhoea, and mercury used by wildcat gold miners.

• The government announced food packages to the Yanomami, where about 26,000 Yanomami live in an area of rainforest and tropical savanna.

• The Yonomami area has been a victim of illegal gold mining gangs for decades.

About Yanomami tribes

• They are also called South American Indians.

• They live in the remote forests of the Orinoco River Basin in southern Venezuela and the northernmost part of the Amazon River Basin in northern Brazil.

• They live in small, scattered, semi-permanent villages, speak the Ziriana language, and hunt.

• Their population is about 26,000.

• Davi Copenava, a Brazilian leader who secured the land rights of the Yanomami people, has been awarded the Right Livelihood Award-2019, also known as Sweden's alternative Nobel Prize.