Fraværet af regn og deraf følgende dårlig høst betyder at mange sulter i den østlige del af Sydsudan. Det får mange til at søge lykken som guldgraver. Det skønnes at landet har 60.000 guldgravere.
NANAKANAK, 10 June 2013 (IRIN): Around 60,000 people are thought to be mining gold in South Sudan, using the bare hands they once used to harvest crops. In the new nation’s east, where poor rains have caused widespread hunger, women, children and the elderly have joined the hordes of people seeking their fortune through this back-breaking labour.
Like many of the ethnic Toposa people living in Eastern Equatoria State, Adele Natogo came to Nanakanak, an area of scrubland with just a few stick houses, one month ago, after walking five hours from Lomeyen Village, in Kapoeta North County.
She left her nine children at home, hungry, after hearing that the earth around Kapoeta was filled with gold. “I’m here because of hunger, because there is nothing for my family and no food to give the children,” she told IRIN.
Miners say the area of Greater Kapoeta started to suffer from drought and erratic rains around five years ago, around the time Africa’s longest-running civil war ended and there were hopes that, finally, peace and prosperity would come.
During the war, finds were great; gold was sold to Sudanese traders for as little as US$1 a gram, and was used by Southern rebels to fund their fight against the north. But life has been getting harder here since South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011.
“During the time of the Arabs and at the start of the mining, there was a lot of gold here – too much,” said Angelo Longolaleyang, paramount chief for the whole Greater Kapoeta area. “Right now the situation has changed. Gold is not much available.”
Hunger
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says “poor climatic conditions, inaccessibility, poverty and underdevelopment, and occasional insecurity” have pummelled the area, driving food insecurity.
“Many parts of the Greater Kapoeta are semi-arid, receiving low rainfall with some extreme cases where there is less than 200mm of rain per year. This makes it a difficult environment for agricultural production without a huge investment in issues such as irrigation,” said WFP public information officer George Fominyen.
In February, local officials appealed for aid after reporting deaths from widespread hunger.
“Last year when we cultivated, we got nothing from the ground. The sun came and burnt everything, and so we were left with nothing. We decided to come to Nanakanak to do some mining, just so we can find something small to buy something to eat,” said Natogo. “But there is so little gold, and even the wild fruits we used to survive on have now gone.”
Natogo says that in a “lucky” week, she can make $34 from selling a gram of gold, but most of it goes to food.
“There are many children doing this. If you come in the evening, you’ll see the sheer number of people mining here who come back to the camps,” said Nanakanak community leader David Headboy.
Peter Locebe, who thinks he has been digging for 19 years, says he used to find up to 30g of gold a day.
“Before, there was a lot of gold and few people, because that time there was food and people didn’t care about gold. Right now because there is hunger all over, people have come from all around to mine and [are] competing, and even walk away empty-handed,” he said.
Struggling communities
Læs resten af artiklen: http://www.irinnews.org/report/98204/hunger-drives-hunt-for-gold-in-south-sudan-s-east
