Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) has described the reported death of 37 young miners who were detained over alleged illegal mining activities in Niger as unfortunate.
The Executive Director, Dr Nnimmo Bassey, made the statement on Tuesday in Yenagoa while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in reaction to the incident.
Bassey said that the tragedy should be viewed as part of a wider crisis created by destructive practices within the extractive industry.
He said that the incident should be a warning on the devastating human and ecological costs of Nigeria’s extractive economy.
The HOMEF official said that although the cause of the deaths remained a subject of investigation, the incident raised questions about the conditions that drove young people into hazardous mining activities.
“We must stop treating extraction as the pathway to development while ignoring the lives, lands and ecosystems sacrificed in the process.
“Whether it is oil, gold or critical minerals, an economic model that destroys the ecological foundations of life cannot be the future that we seek,” he said.
Bassey said that the deaths underscored an urgent need to address the poverty, livelihood insecurity and economic exclusion that pushed people into dangerous and informal mining.
He called for an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deaths.
“The deaths should be independently and transparently investigated, and accountability should be established where wrongdoing or negligence is found,” he said.(NAN)
