More than 45,000 Burkinabè return after expulsion from Guinea gold mines

Burkina Faso’s National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation announced that 45,406 people had returned from Guinea by November 12, including 9,852 children, after Conakry banned unregulated gold prospecting in the Siguiri region.

The number of people returning to Burkina Faso from Guinea reached 45,406 by November 12, after Guinean authorities banned unregulated gold prospecting in the Siguiri region in the northeast of the country, according to a statement by Burkina Faso’s National Council for Emergency Relief and Rehabilitation.

The statement, signed by Family and Solidarity Minister Lieutenant Colonel Baswendi Belagi Kaboré, said the returnees included 44,304 men and 1,102 women, among them 9,852 children, as well as 1,224 people of other nationalities. The figure had stood at 37,136 people as of November 11, including 7,988 children.

منقبون عن الذهب غادروا غينيا لدى وصولهم إلى مالي

From Siguiri to Bobo-Dioulasso

The departures began after the Guinean government announced a ban on unregulated gold prospecting in the Siguiri region on November 2. The government cited the need to protect the environment from pollution of the Niger River and its tributaries and from the use of cyanide. Guinean Foreign Minister Morissanda Kouyaté said, “Environmental protection cannot be sacrificed in the name of African brotherhood,” stressing that the decision did not target any particular nationality, Radio France Internationale reported.

The departing people crossed into neighboring Mali, from where bus convoys transported them to a reception center in Bobo-Dioulasso, western Burkina Faso. There, they undergo security and health checks and receive psychological support before being taken to their home regions. The first convoy, carrying 3,400 people on 48 buses, arrived on the night of November 6–7.

أعضاء في حكومة بوركينا فاسو خلال استقبال العائدين من غينيا في بوبو ديولاسو

Returnees’ accounts

Returnees in Bobo-Dioulasso said their gold, money and belongings had been confiscated and that they had been given no more than 24 hours to leave Guinean territory, African media outlets reported. Alassane Kaboré, 21, told Agence France-Presse in Mali, “We went through things I would not wish on anyone.”

Ouagadougou considered the operation an expulsion of its citizens, while Burkina Faso’s Security Minister Mahamadou Sana described the Guinean authorities’ position as “regrettable.” The government announced measures to support the returnees, including returning children to school, providing vocational training and supporting economic integration. Mali said it had received around 160,000 people arriving from Guinea, most of them from Burkina Faso.

Photos: Burkinabè government via LeFaso website, Agence France-Presse

More than 45,000 Burkinabè return after expulsion from Guinea gold mines