Faced with an upsurge in jihadist attacks, Burkina Faso is counting its dead.
The country began, Tuesday, June 14, three days of national mourning after the attack on the village of Seytenga which left 79 dead, the heaviest massacre in a year.
Since 2015, more than 2,000 civilians have reportedly been killed in attacks attributed to armed groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State organization.
While this security crisis weighs heavily on the country's economy, it has so far had little effect on gold production: Burkina's leading export product has continued to grow.
Faced with a drop in activity in 2022, the sector now fears that rampant insecurity will scare away foreign investors.
Threats against industrial gold mines
On June 9 at dawn, several dozen armed men entered the mining complex of the company Riverstone Karma, in the province of Yatenga, and opened fire on its occupants.
A soldier and an employee lost their lives in this attack, which was finally repelled by the security forces.
The raid against the Karma mine, near the border with Mali in the north of the country, marks a new stage in the security crisis affecting the gold sector in Burkina Faso.
Because if mining interests are regularly targeted by jihadist groups, direct attacks against industrial mines are extremely rare.
Several local journalists said Karma's raid was the first of its kind since the terrorist threat arrived in the country in 2015.
#Burkina Faso |
Terrorist attack repelled on Thursday against the #Karma gold mine, #Namissiguima, #North.
This is the first direct attack against an industrial gold mining site.
At the start of the week, armed men launched shells at the #Boungou mining site without causing any casualties.
https://t.co/VnEoXL1bxQ pic.twitter.com/OsDiks4mUx
— Djakaridia Siribié 🇧🇫 (@Dsiribie) June 9, 2022
“We have decided to suspend operations to focus our efforts on securing all employees, our subcontractors and the site,” the company announced following the attack.
A month earlier, the Russian group Nordgold announced the permanent closure of its mine in Taparko.
In operation since 2007, this private industrial site is one of the oldest and largest in the country.
In a press release, the company deplored the “absolute impossibility” of continuing its activities due to “generalized insecurity” around its operations.
These recent events raise fears of a loss of revenue for the State, while gold production recorded a significant decline in the first half of 2022 compared to the previous year.
The end of the golden age?
If the outlook is dark today for the Burkinabè gold industry, it has long displayed an insolent growth that seemed permeable to all crises.
Initiated from 2003 by the liberalization of the sector, the boom in extraction allowed gold to dethrone cotton from 2008 as the country's leading export product.
A dazzling growth that has continued since and is the pride of its players.
"Burkina Faso has made a prodigious leap, an almost unequaled record, with a ratio of 1.2 mines per year, from 2009 to today. No country in the world, including major mining countries such as Canada, the Australia, have never experienced such performances" welcomed Adama Soro, president of the Chamber of Mines of Burkina, in an interview in July 2021.
During the health crisis, the sector continued to rise, driven by the rise in the price of the precious metal and the operation of two new industrial mines – bringing their total number in the country to 17.
But, at the same time, the security of personnel and infrastructure has become increasingly difficult, requiring large financial investments.
In November 2019, the death of 40 employees of the Boungou gold mine, in the East, during an ambush against their bus, caused shock waves in the sector.
Since then, several companies have organized the transport of their employees by air from the city to the mining sites.
Others have chosen to reinforce the escorts of their convoys of workers.
A measure that was not enough to stem this type of attack, the latest of which took place on June 6 in the east of the country.
Gold panners, fertile recruiting ground for armed groups
How can this upsurge in attacks on gold interests be explained?
For Tongnoma Zongo, researcher at the National Center for Scientific and Technological Research in Burkina Faso, the security crisis reflects the gap that has gradually widened between industry and public opinion.
"Citizens are well aware that the sector above all benefits foreign companies. Gold represents 70% of the country's exports but it only contributes up to 11% of the national GDP", he underlines.
"Faced with the harmful consequences of these operations on the environment and agriculture, the local populations have the feeling of suffering the disadvantages of this activity without seeing the benefits".
Alongside the development of the gold industry, the practice of gold panning has also experienced strong growth in recent decades.
The authorities estimate that more than 1.3 million people – around 6% of the Burkinabè population – work on some 700 artisanal mining sites operated in the country, mostly outside of any state control.
Insecure, these sites are prime targets for armed groups.
They are also fertile ground for recruitment.
"Gold panners work a lot by word of mouth to identify good veins", explains Tongnoma Zongo.
“Once they have identified a site, they have to invest money to carry out the research. However, very often, when these sites turn out to be rich in gold, they are recovered by the gold mining companies which hunt the gold miners without their grant compensation, since they work without a permit. This situation, which generates a lot of resentment, is exploited by the jihadists to swell their ranks".
Aware of these problems, the Ministry of Mines opened, on June 10, consultations on the security situation.
Among the government's priorities: the reorganization of artisanal mining "to prevent artisanal gold sites from serving as refuge and sources of financing for armed terrorist groups".
The summary of the
France 24 week invites you to come back to the news that marked the week
I subscribe
Take international news everywhere with you!
Download the France 24 app
google-play-badge_FR