Brazilian Government Declares Medical Emergency in Yanomami

Sakshi Education

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.

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