Miners expelled from Guinea begin to leave assembly site in Mali
Bamako says it has received some 160,000 people since Conakry's crackdown on illegal gold mining, describing a humanitarian emergency.
Hundreds of artisanal gold miners expelled from Guinea have begun leaving a mining site in Mali where they had gathered, boarding trucks and buses sent to collect them.
On 7 November, the Malian authorities said they had received approximately 160,000 people expelled from Guinea since the start of operations against illegal mining. They reported six deaths and expressed concern at what they described as a "humanitarian emergency".
The expulsions followed the entry into force on 2 November of a ban on unregulated and clandestine mining in Siguiri, Guinea's principal gold-producing region in the north-east. A joint statement from Guinea's ministries of defence and security put the number arrested for alleged illegal gold panning at 1,263, including nationals of Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana.
Guinea, which holds substantial reserves of gold and bauxite, says the crackdown is intended to address the environmental damage caused by artisanal mining, including land degradation and the pollution of waterways. The operation has, however, produced an unprecedented movement of people across the border region.