A member of the Yanomami indigenous community was killed and two others were seriously injured in an attack by gold miners on their territory in Brazil. The government has been working to evict illegal miners from the reservation, which is as large as Portugal, and had removed around 80% of the more than 20,000 miners who had invaded the area. However, those who remain are resisting removal more violently. The Environment Minister has said that the armed forces may be deployed to complete the eviction process. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has pledged zero tolerance for mining on indigenous land.
The Federal Police are investigating the clash between miners and indigenous people and are working to find and arrest those responsible for the shootings. The presence of illegal miners has caused a humanitarian crisis by spreading disease and causing malnutrition among the Yanomami by reducing their game and poisoning rivers. The environmental protection agency Ibama has dismantled 300 mining camps and destroyed 20 planes and one helicopter. The agency is planning further eviction operations on five other reservations where illegal logging and mining has increased under previous President Jair Bolsonaro.
