Issued on: Modified:
Children are still working in mines in Cameroon, despite a ban that came into effect on August 30 after several deadly mine collapses. Our Observer visited Kambele mine on October 4 and took pictures of children working there, more than a month after the Ministry of Mines enacted the ban.
Some sit in the mud, holding buckets or sieves in their hands. Other children have their feet or hands submerged in a pond. Some of these children look younger than 10 years old and yet they are already working in the gold mine in Kambele, a village near the town of Batouri, located in the East Region of the country, not far from the border with the Central African Republic.
Journalist and blogger Jean-Charles Biyo’o Ella went to Kambele on October 4 to report on the situation there. He sent our team these images.
‘Children practically grow up in the mine’
Thousands of children come to the mine in Kambele each day to look for gold. You see a lot of kids under the age of 14 but there are also some very young children there. The youngest child I’ve seen at the site was barely a year old. They come with their mothers who work in the mine. Some of the children come to take care of their younger siblings while their mothers work.
The children who are a bit older dig around for gold without any protection. They bring anything they find to gold panners, who will buy it from them for a bit of money.
There is a primary school in the village, right by the mine. When the school year started back in September, there were 200 children. Just a month later, there were only 45 children. They had all left school and gone back to the mines.
Source : france24
