Sit-In Planned in River Nile’s Fatwar Area in Protest Against Mining Companies

Berber – Sudanhorizon

Residents of the village of Fatwar, north of Al-Bawga in River Nile State, are organizing an open-ended sit-in beginning tomorrow, Saturday, in protest against the environmental damage caused by mining companies operating in the area. Residents say the companies’ use of substances harmful to both humans and the environment has contributed to dozens of deaths over recent years from cancer and kidney failure.

A local source said the residents plan to stage the open sit-in to demand the closure of two companies operating in the area for allegedly failing to comply with the terms under which they were established. According to the source, the companies were originally authorized to conduct gold exploration under specific conditions, but instead shifted toward processing mining waste (“karta”) using cyanide, causing severe environmental damage in the region.

The source added that residents had contacted all relevant authorities to stop the harm, but received no response or intervention to compel the companies to halt their violations, including the use of cyanide and other hazardous substances and their disposal into seasonal water channels near the community.

Several citizens called on the central government to intervene and stop what they described as a humanitarian catastrophe that has led to dozens of deaths and hundreds of chronic illness cases.

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