"I decided yesterday to open a new police investigation into a possible genocide," Justice Minister Flavio Dino told CNN Brazil on Tuesday (January 24th).

It will focus on the Yanomami indigenous territory, isolated in the middle of the virgin forest in Brazil, where the Ministry of Health has listed the death of 99 children under the age of five in 2022.

“We consider that there are very strong indications of a denial of food and health assistance to these indigenous populations,” he added.   

Among the causes of death, pneumonia, diarrhea and gastroenteritis, probably of infectious origin, as well as haemorrhage or severe malnutrition.

The investigation, which targets public officials and health sector officials in the indigenous territory, will also focus on allegations of environmental crimes and misappropriation of public resources.

Lula "shaken" by what he saw in Yanomami territory

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, invested on January 1, went on January 21 to Boa Vista, in the state of Roraima, in the north of the country, where part of the Yanomami territory is located. 

"What I saw shook me," he said, referring to "inhuman" scenes when reporting on his visit.

Some 30,400 indigenous people live in Yanomami lands, straddling Roraima and Amazonas states, but also in parts of neighboring Venezuela.

The populations of these lands, supposed to be inviolable and where all mining is prohibited, are facing difficulties in feeding themselves due to the destruction of the tropical forest where they normally find their means of subsistence.

According to Yanomami chiefs, some 20,000 illegal gold diggers have invaded their territory, killing natives, sexually abusing women and teenage girls and contaminating their rivers with the mercury that separates gold from sediment.

(AFP)

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