Burkina Faso to close mines where children are found
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Netafrique
Burkina Faso’s mining minister, Yacouba Zabré Gouba, has announced the closure of any mining site where a child is found, with measures against those responsible. The measure is part of efforts to formalise gold panning and support workers expelled from Guinea, according to Netafrique.
Burkina Faso’s Minister of Energy, Mines and Quarries, Yacouba Zabré Gouba, announced on Tuesday that any gold-panning site where a child is found would be closed and measures taken against those who made the child work there, during a meeting with artisanal mining organisations. He recalled that the Mining Code prohibits children from being present at gold-panning sites.
Yacouba Zabré Gouba also called on mining stakeholders to formalise their activities, particularly by creating cooperative companies. The director general of the National Office for the Security of Mining Sites (ONASSIM), Arnauld Ouédraogo, highlighted the effects of unregulated gold mining on security, education, health and the environment.
The meeting comes as several thousand Burkinabè expelled from Guinea return to the country following operations against illegal gold mining. The Burkinabè government mobilised around 100 buses and set up a voluntary contributions drive to receive them. Yacouba Zabré Gouba called for them to be directed towards other economic activities in Burkina Faso rather than towards new departures linked to mining.
Faso SANU’s missions include identifying illegal sites, reclaiming disputed sites and combating water and land pollution. Communication Minister Pingdwendé Gilbert Ouédraogo cited the Ouaga-Bobo motorway works and the agro-sylvo-pastoral offensive among the employment opportunities for young people.
