https://www.bitchute.com/video/C9cO8rf52WQ9/
😢😢😢 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😠😠😠
😢😢😢 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😠😠😠
😢😢😢 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😠😠😠
‘እጅግ ከፍተኛ ደረጃ ላይ የደረሰ ቀውስ’፡ ህገወጥ የወርቅ ጥድፊያ ኢትዮጵያን እያፈረሰ ያለው ህገወጥ የወርቅ ጥድፊያ | በትግራይ ወርቅ ለማግኘት የሚደረገው ሩጫ
“የትግራይ አዛዦች፣ የፌዴራል መኮንኖች፣ የውጭ ዜጎች […] ትርምስ ይፈጥራሉ ከዚያም ትርምስ ይጠቀማሉ” ብለዋል።
“ሁሉም ይጠቀማሉ። ከትግራይ ህዝብ በስተቀር።”
😢😢😢 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😠😠😠
😢😢😢 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😠😠😠
😢😢😢 ዋይ! ዋይ! ዋይ! 😠😠😠
በኢትዮጵያ ትግራይ ወርቅ ለመዝረፍ የሚደረገው ሩጫ
ከጦርነቱ በኋላ ትግራይ በብዙ ቢሊዮን ዶላር የሚቆጠር የወርቅ ጥድፊያ ክልሉን እየያዘ ሲሆን፣ የታጠቁ ተዋናዮችን እና የውጭ ባለሀብቶችን ኪስ እያሸበረ ሲሆን የአካባቢውን ማህበረሰቦች እያወደመ ነው። እንደ አሜሪካ እና ቻይና ባሉ ሀገራት ክምችት ለማከማቸት በሚሯሯጡ የወርቅ ዋጋ በዓለም አቀፍ ደረጃ እየጨመረ መምጣቱ “እየጨመረ የመጣ የሀብት ኢኮኖሚ ከህገወጥ ጋር መታገል ያለበት” በሆነበት ቦታ ላይ እያደገ የመጣው ነገር አካል ነው። ከግሎብ ኤንድ ሜይል እና ከምርመራ ጋዜጠኝነት ቢሮ የተውጣጡ ዘጋቢዎች በክልሉ ውስጥ ለሳምንታት በተለይም በህገወጥ የማዕድን ቁፋሮ ውስጥ በመግባት የማዕድን ቁፋሮ ባለሙያዎችን፣ የደህንነት ባለስልጣናትን፣ የፋሺስቱ ጋላ-ኦሮሞ እስላማዊ አገዛዝ የውስጥ አካላትን እና የማህበረሰብ አባላትን ቃለ መጠይቅ አድርገዋል፣ እና በመቶዎች የሚቆጠሩ የተፈቱ ሰነዶችን፣ የፋይናንስ መግለጫዎችን እና የህዝብ መዝገቦችን ጨምሮ የሳተላይት ምስሎችን ተንትነዋል። የውስጥ መንግስት መረጃዎች እንደሚያሳዩት የኢትዮጵያ ማዕከላዊ ባንክ ከትግራይ የእጅ ጥበብ ማዕድን ቁፋሮ ባለሙያዎች ከአስራ ስምንት ሺህ/18,000 ኪ.ግ በላይ ወርቅ ገዝቷል - ክልሉ በህጋዊ መንገድ ያመርታል ተብሎ ከተገመተው ሰላሳ/30 እጥፍ እጥፍ።
እንግዲህ ስንቴ እናስጠንቅቅ!? እነዚህን ከውስጥም ከውጭም ድራማ እየሠሩ በመናበብ በጋራ ሆነው በዓለም ታይቶና ተሰምቶ የማይታወቀውን የጀነሳይድ ዓይነት እየፈጸሙብን ያሉትን ቆሻሾች አንድ በአንድ በእሳት ለመጥረግ ለምንድን ነው የማትተባበሩን?!
በሱዳንም እየተፈጸመ ያለው ወንጀል እኮ ከዚሁ ከወርቅ እና ከጥንታዊ ሕዝብ ጥላቻ ጉዳይ ጋር የተያያዘ ነው። ሱዳንም ኢትዮጵያ ናት፣ አፈሩም ውሃም የእኛው ነው። ሉሲፈራውያኑ እኮ የወደፊቱን በመፍራት አስቀድመው በስጋን በመንፈስም ሊያኮላሹን ተነስተዋል። ከሱዳን፣ ደቡብ ሱዳን እና ግብጽ ክርስቲያን ወገኖቻችን ጋር ተባብረን በመሥራት እስማኤላውያኑን እና ኤዶማውያኑንን እንዳናንበረክካቸው አስቀድመው እየሠሩበት እኮ ነው። ለምንድን ነው እኛ አርቆ ማሰብ የተሳነን?!
እነዚህ ቆሻሻ ወንጀለኞች የዳግማዊ ምንሊክ የመጨረሻ ትውልድ አውሬዎች እና ሉሲፈራውያኑ ሞግዚቶቻቸው እኮ ማሳደዱ፣ መሳደቡ፣ ማንቋሸሹ፣ መድፈሩ፣ መጭፍጨፉ፣ ማስራቡና ደማችን፣ መቅኒያችንን መምጠጡ አይበቃቸውም ፥
- ❖ እግዚአብሔር አምላክ የሰጠንን ኃብት ሁሉ፣ ቢችሉም ነፍሳችንን፣ መንፈሳዊ ማንነታችንና ምንነታችንን፣ አክሱማዊቷ ኢትዮጵያችንን፣ ቋንቋችንን፣ ባሕላችንን፣ ሃይማኖታችንን
- ❖ አፈር እና ውሃችንን(ቅዱስ ጸበል፣ ጥምቀት)
- ❖ የጤፍ፣ ስንዴ እና ገብስ እህሎቻችንን/ሰብሎቻችንን(ቍርባን)
- ❖ የዘይት እና ፍራፍሬ ዛፎቻችንን ዕፀዋቶቻችን፣ አታክልቶቻችንና ችግኞችንን (ቅብዓ ሜሮን)
- ❖ ዶሮዎቻችንን፣ በጎቻችንን እና ከብቶቻችንን
- ❖ በመንፈሳዊ ጥራት በዓለም ተወዳዳሪ የሌላቸውን የእጣን እና ከርቤ ዛፎቻችንን፣ የወርቅ ማዕድናችንን
ዘርፈው ባዶ እጃችንን ሊያስቀሩን ነው፣ የመንፈሳዊ ድኽነት ሊያመጡብን ነው፣ እርቃናችንን ሊያስቀሩን ነው፣ ሃገር አልባ ሊያደርጉን ነው! ሊያውርዱን እና ባሪያ ሊያደርጉን ነው፣ ወይኔ! ወይኔ! ወይኔ! ስንቴ እንናገር፤ ጃል! ባካችሁ፣ ባካችሁ፣ ባካችሁ፤ ተነሱ እንነሳ እነዚያን አረመኔ ከሃዲዎች ከእነ ዘርማንዘራቸው በእሳት እንጠራርጋቸው! በተጨማሪ አረብ አረቡን በለው ወገቡን! ሌላ ምንም መፍትሔ አይኖርም!
“Tigrayan commanders, federal officers, foreigners […] they make the chaos and then they profit from the chaos,” he said.
“They all benefit. Except the people of Tigray.”
🛑 A Target of The Genocidal War in Ethiopia: Gold, Frankincense & Myrrh (The Three Wise Men)
🛑 በኢትዮጵያ የዘር ማጥፋት ጦርነት ኢላማ፤ ወርቅ፣ ዕጣን እና ከርቤ (ሰብአ ሰገል)
👉 ምስጢሩ ወርቅ + ዕጣን + ከርቤ ሊሆን ይችላል/ ነውም!
👹 ሉሲፈራውያን ተስፋ ቆርጠዋል፤ ስለዚህ ወርቅን፣ ዕጣንና ከርቤን ለማጥፋት ቆርጠው ተነስተዋል። በአክሱም ጽዮን ላይ የተከፈተው ጂሃድ አንዱ ተልዕኮ የሦስቱም ውድና ብርቅዬ ነገሮች ምንጭ አክሱም ጽዮን በመሆኗ ነው።
የዕጣን ዛፎቹ (የጦርነቱ አንዱ ተልዕኮ ይህን እንደ ኮሮና ያሉ ወረርሽኞችን የሚከላከለውን ዕጣን የሚያወጣውን 'የሕይወት ዛፍ' ለሉሲፈራውያኑ አንጋፋ የዓለማችን መድኃኒት ዓምራች ኩባንያዎች ሲባል ማውደም መሆኑን በተደጋጋሚ አውስቼ ነበር።
ዕጣን እና ከርቤ ምናልባት በመጽሐፍ ቅዱስ ትርጓሜያቸው በጣም የታወቁ ናቸው። እነዚህ የዛፍ ጭማቂዎች በዓለም ዙሪያ ለስድስት ሺህ ዓመታት ያህል በጣም የተከበሩ ናቸው። እነዚህ ጥሩ መዓዛ ያላቸው የዕጣንና ከርቤ ዛፎች “በቅርቡ ወደ መጥፋት ሊያመሩ ይችላሉ።” የሚለው ስጋት መሰማት ከጀመረ ዓመታት አስቆጥሯል። የእነዚህ ዛፎች መነሻ ከአክሱም ጽዮን ነው።
🛑 ታዲያ ወርቅን፣ ዕጣንን እና ከርቤን በጣም ውድ የሚያደርጋቸው ነገር ምንድን ነው?
- ❖ ወርቅ = ኢየሱስ የዘላለም ንጉሥ ነው።
- ❖ ዕጣን = ኢየሱስ የሁሉ አምላክ ነው።
- ❖ ከርቤ = ኢየሱስ የማይሞት ነው።
👉Trump – UAE – Qatar – Sudan – Ethiopia (Tigray) – Gold 👈
It's no secret that President Trump really, really loves gold.
Trump has been comprised by the billions invested in Trump Organizations and in America by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE, Qatar, and other Muslim Countries which are waging all forms of jihad (eg. lives, money), war against Non-Muslims to make Islam supreme (Quran 9:5, 29, 111, etc.).I t’s worse than that.
💭 "President Dollar Trump: In Gold We Trust – We’re Going to Become So Rich...
https://www.bitchute.com/video/H0YVjAWm0djT
💵 ፕሬዝዳንት ዶላር ትራምፕ፡ በወርቅ እንታመናለን - በጣም ሀብታም እንሆናለን…
👉 Courtesy: The Globe and Mail, Canada, by Claire Wilmot and Ashenafi Endale, November 13, 2025
As gold prices skyrocket, Chinese and western companies are working side by side to exploit a region ravaged by civil war.
Illegal gold mining industry has exploded in Ethiopia's Tigray region since the end of the civil war
Shady foreign investors have joined forces with local military to exploit it for profit
Unregulated mining is ruining land, killing cattle and poisoning local people
At a military checkpoint in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, an area reckoning with the aftermath of one of the 21st century’s deadliest wars, heavily armed soldiers ordered TBIJ to pull over. After a brief interrogation, we were told in no uncertain terms to turn back. Only those with written permission from the military controlling the area could go any further.
As we tried to negotiate our way through, a dusty pickup truck skidded to a halt next to us. Its driver, a Chinese national, was accompanied by a local interpreter dressed in army fatigues. In the back were vinyl sacks, pickaxes and half a dozen men. The interpreter handed a piece of paper to one of the soldiers, who waved them through.
The truck accelerated away from the checkpoint and towards the sites we had been forbidden from approaching: two vast gold mines, so big they can be seen from space.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) can reveal that for over a year these sites, known as Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, were both home to huge illegal mining operations, part of an illicit post-war gold rush in Tigray now worth billions, according to records from Ethiopia’s National Bank.
On paper, the sites are licensed to subsidiaries of East Africa Metals (EAM), a Canadian mining company with deep ties to China. EAM has said publicly it is developing legal industrial mines here through its business partners. Meanwhile, on the ground, gold has been illegally excavated by former soldiers working alongside Chinese miners whose machinery is paid for by shadowy “foreign investors”, according to miners and former security officials. The sites are guarded by military men who control vast smuggling networks, which are in turn fuelling yet more violence across a region already devastated by conflict.
Part of what is driving the explosion of illegal mining in Tigray is the sky-high price of gold around the world. The US, China and others are scrambling to buy up gold reserves. But our investigation also challenges popular depictions of Chinese and western companies as fierce competitors: in Tigray, the two are working hand-in-glove.
EAM told us it “categorically denies the suggestion it is implicated in activities that violate Canadian, Ethiopian or international law”. It acknowledged that mining operations appear to have taken place at the sites, including potentially by foreigners, but believes they are acting as individuals, not as representatives of any company. EAM also told us operations on the sites were suspended and its subsidiaries and development partners were unable to access them.
It is not only EAM’s sites that became hubs of illegal gold production. Since the end of the war, large illicit mines have sprung up across Tigray, fuelled by foreign capital and enabled by local military men. The chemicals being used to pry gold from the earth are poisoning the local land and water. People living nearby have reported strange skin conditions. Their crops and animals are dying.
Canadian companies hold most foreign mining licences in Tigray and numerous people within the industry told us they believe some of these firms have been involved in the boom of illicit mining. For over a year, TBIJ has been investigating these claims. Our reporters have travelled across hundreds of kilometres to some of Tigray’s most remote corners, conducting more than 200 interviews in search of answers.
The stakes are high. Journalists reporting on these matters have been detained and threatened with serious violence. Whistleblowers have been intimidated, assaulted and threatened with death. Tigrayans protesting the looting of their land have been injured and killed.
For these reasons, almost everyone who spoke to us for this story did so on the condition of anonymity. But their testimonies paint the clearest picture yet of an illicit industry that is ruining the land, stoking deadly violence and threatens to push Ethiopia back to war.
The gold rush
Gold has always been a precious commodity – but right now, it is worth more than ever. In October prices surpassed $4,000 an ounce, and across Tigray, the gold rush can be seen everywhere. Along the highway that links the regional capital Mekelle with the gold hub of Shire, young children brandish small bags of dust and nuggets at passing cars.
Not long ago, this region was the scene of a brutal civil war that broke out in late 2020 between Ethiopia’s federal government and Tigray’s leading political party. By the time a peace deal was signed two years later, more than half a million people were believed to have been killed.
Before the war, Tigray’s mining industry was smaller and more tightly regulated. For foreign companies, licences were granted federally and implemented regionally. Meanwhile, licences for so-called “artisanal” mining – which permit small-scale methods, like digging and panning for gold by hand – were granted by local and regional governments.
But the war drove a wedge between the federal and regional governments, and fragmented political authority within Tigray. In its aftermath, as an economic crisis took hold, opportunistic military men took control of key gold-producing sites.
Gold mining in Tigray became a multibillion-dollar industry – and those who controlled the most profitable sites gained sudden political power. Unnamed “investors” from outside the region, spotting their opportunity, began to cut deals to expand production and smuggle gold out of Tigray, local miners and former government officials told us.
The result was the expansion of sites like Mato Bula and Da Tambuk into sprawling quarries where artisanal miners, in violation of laws and regulations, began to use heavy machinery and toxic chemicals to unearth gold. Many people we spoke to were clear that mines like these could not be built without the approval of local military leaders involved in the illicit gold trade.
EAM told us it does not engage with any military or paramilitary organisations and has no involvement with armed actors in the region.
“The gold economy is fuelling conflict and empowering armed actors in Ethiopia,” said Ahmed Soliman, a senior research fellow at Chatham House. “We should have seen these resources being used to rebuild the region. Instead, they are being misappropriated.”
Our findings raise major questions about Tigray’s mining industry – not least around the role of East Africa Metals, whose previous public statements about the legal development of its sites are a far cry from what is happening on the ground.
‘This is the wild west’
While a number of Canadian companies hold mining exploration licenses in Tigray, EAM’s subsidiaries are the only ones permitted to develop large-scale industrial mines. In so doing, EAM has enlisted the help of a China-registered firm called Tibet Huayu, which, as well as promoting the projects to potential Chinese investors, is covering the two mines’ construction costs. According to stock exchange filings, it has spent at least $2m on the projects since 2019.
The official word from both companies is that the mines are not yet operational. Neither company has reported any revenue from the mines.
But Mato Bula and Da Tambuk were already producing gold. Both sites have been hubs of illegal extraction for well over a year, according to artisanal miners, gold brokers and security officials.
Heavy machinery has been visible in satellite imagery of both sites since January 2024, and one smuggler who moves gold from both sites said that returns have grown rapidly.
Justin Lynch of Conflict Insights Group, a research organisation that has analysed images of both sites, said they show “clear signs of expansion from 2024 to 2025”. He added that more equipment associated with large-scale artisanal mining appeared between January and November 2024.
According to four artisanal miners who have witnessed the expansion, as well as a government official, two former security officers and an individual involved in smuggling, most equipment was brought to the site by Chinese miners, who ramped up production midway through 2024, around the same time EAM announced construction would be starting.
Three investors with first-hand knowledge of operations at the sites also told us that the expansion of these illegal operations has been financed by EAM’s Chinese business partners. They said Chinese miners employed by EAM’s partners and subsidiaries have been mining on these sites, in collusion with some Tigrayan military officers, for around a year – and that the gold has been smuggled out of the region.
Other insiders who have visited the sites went as far as saying that the miners in question worked for Silk Road Investments, a company wholly owned by Tibet Huayu, EAM’s business partner. Others told us that illegal miners at the sites worked for Tigray Resources, a company joint-owned by EAM and Tibet Huayu.
EAM told us it “unequivocally rejects the suggestion that it, or any of its subsidiaries or affiliated business partners, financed or facilitated illegal artisanal mining activities”, including any complicity in smuggling. Tibet Huayu did not respond to requests for comment.
In June, Tigray’s new president dispatched a task force to seize mining assets and enforce temporary pauses on mining across the region. His allies say the move is meant to bring the illicit economy to heel. His critics say it is a means of asserting his authority over all sites. One of his key allies maintains control over Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, though sources near the sites say that machinery has changed hands in recent months, and Chinese miners were replaced by locals. The task force was set to conclude in the coming weeks, but worsening violence on Tigray’s southern border may cause further delays.
“This is the wild west,” said Ahmed Soliman of Chatham House. “[Tigray’s illegal mines] appear to be causing serious environmental harms, labour is unregulated and there is very little transparency about the relationships western companies have with problematic actors.”
In the case of EAM, its business links throw up some especially intriguing questions. Not least because its partnership with Tibet Huayu is only the most public of its numerous connections to Chinese companies, Chinese capital – and Chinese state strategy.
The China connection
EAM’s links to China go back as far as the company itself. Shortly after its creation in 2012, it acquired exploration licences in Tigray – including for Mato Bula and Da Tambuk – from a company called Beijing Donia Resources.
Thirteen years on, EAM says it has not made a penny from its Ethiopia projects. But since the war ended, it has received cash injections from other companies – known as private placements – worth at least $5m. These are often made anonymously.
Two of these, totalling $1.1m, originated from a Chinese company called Sinotech Minerals Exploration Co Ltd, according to well-placed business insiders. They said the money had been paid via another Canadian company, which Sinotech part-owns, called Nickel North Exploration Co.
EAM told us that Nickel North has never made a private placement to EAM. When asked if the payments in question came from individuals associated with Nickel North or Sinotech, the company said it could not disclose the information without the investors’ consent. Nickel North and Sinotech did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
In June 2025, EAM closed a $4m private placement – this time with a company called Anchises Capital, a newly formed US-registered company. Anchises executives also have ties to China, according to two industry insiders and business registry documents.
Linking these entities is one man: a businessman called Jingbin Wang. He is chairman of Sinotech, chairman of Nickel North, former chairman of Beijing Donia, and chairman of the board of directors at EAM.
Wang is also the chief geologist for Zijin Mining Group, a Chinese enterprise that has a 55% interest in a third mine licensed to an EAM subsidiary.
On top of this, he holds key roles in government agencies responsible for China’s gold and critical minerals strategy. And copper, a vital mineral for the green transition, is found alongside gold in the earth at EAM’s Tigray mines. The Canadian government has limited Chinese control of Canadian critical minerals companies, including a Lithium company owned by EAM’s CEO and Wang's business partner, Andrew Lee Smith.
Nickel North, Sinotech, Anchises and Jingbin Wang did not respond to our requests for comment.
EAM told us that no copper is expected to be recovered from Da Tambuk and is not present “in economically significant amounts” at Mato Bula.
“The pattern in high-risk resource ventures often reveals opportunistic, risk-tolerant frontier investors who leverage political connections back home to secure deals,” said JR Mailey, research associate at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. “Profit dictates collaboration.”
Days after we presented our findings to EAM, the company announced that it had applied for a management cease trade order, which means it can delay filing its statements for the most recent financial year. It said the order was unrelated to our questions.
EAM published its statements in mid-September, and the cease trade order has been lifted. In the new filings, EAM says the continuation of the project is contingent on its ability to access its sites.
‘A captive workforce’
When we asked miners at another, smaller EAM-licensed site who had paid for their excavators and rock crushers, most kept quiet. Those who did speak told us of anonymous “investors” from abroad.
Nearby at the same site, Abrihet*, a miner, sat on the ground and swirled pearls of mercury over a slurry of dirt and gold – a way of extracting the metal from the ore by hand. The gold trade was new to her, she explained: her family had been left destitute by the war, so she, like so many, was forced to find an alternative income.
Yet for miners like her, gold is far from lucrative. After the investors and the military men took their cut, Abrihet was left with just enough to keep her and her family fed. Her situation isn’t unique. These profit-sharing deals between investors and the military can leave the miners themselves – already risking their health and safety to eke out a living – with very little.
“It’s a captive workforce,” explained one local researcher.
Just down the hill from Abrihet was a large metal structure that sifts ore and mercury through a series of sieves. The process typically extracts only about 30% of gold in the ore, so the runoff that pools at the bottom of the structure is then treated with cyanide.
These processes present serious dangers. Mercury is a toxic chemical that accumulates in the body and even in small amounts can cause neurological damage, skin conditions and loss of vision. It can be especially harmful to unborn babies and infants. Cyanide, meanwhile, is a poison that can seriously damage the brain, heart and nervous system.
In the type of illegal activity seen across Tigray, the use of these chemicals is far more dangerous than in industrial mining, which is bound by regulations designed to keep workers safe. Rules around the containment of runoffs, for instance, shield both miners and the surrounding environment from severe harm. Here there is no such protection.
EAM told us: “Neither EAM, its officers, employees, contractors, or partners have engaged in transactions introducing equipment or chemicals at the target areas.” It categorically denied any suggestion of complicity in environmental harm.
The ecological crisis gripping the region has been extensively documented. A confidential legal report, obtained by TBIJ, detailed the widespread use of chemicals near sources of drinking water. One miner who lives nearby a mine showed us welts covering her hands. In a village downstream, Abrihet said, two children have died from illnesses she attributes to cyanide.
“Without these chemicals, we don’t earn enough,” she said. “But they are also killing us.”
A country at odds
At first, little of the illegally mined gold in Tigray stayed in Ethiopia for very long. Most of it was roughly refined in Shire, and then smuggled out of the country through Eritrea to be sold around the world.
Last summer, however, this changed when federal politicians moved to take control of an industry that they said was empowering some of their Tigrayan rivals.
According to an internal report compiled by the Federal Ministry of Mines, obtained by TBIJ, the National Bank of Ethiopia purchased just over 18,000kg of gold from Tigray’s artisanal miners over the past year. This is nearly 30 times the amount Tigray was projected to legally produce in the same period.
The conclusions are clear: the vast majority of Tigrayan gold that made its way to Addis Ababa was of illicit provenance. Ethiopia generated nearly $3.5bn from gold exports last year, according to the above report, the vast majority of which was reportedly mined in Tigray.
Smugglers and brokers told us that most of the gold, rather than being taken across borders, is now being moved to government purchasing sites, with federal officers complicit.
“There are people who are known to participate in this network from top to bottom among government and security officials,” said Tigray’s former interim president Getachew Reda last year.
Ethiopia’s federal government, Tigray’s regional government, and a military spokesperson did not reply to requests for comment.
The region’s shifting politics may also be warding off the bigger mining companies. An employee formerly with the Newmont Corporation, one of the world’s largest gold mining firms, told us it did not plan to return to the region any time soon despite holding licences there.
This presents a problem for the so-called “junior” companies (a category EAM falls into), which typically operate by selling their prospects on to bigger buyers. A foreign miner who has worked in Tigray said that some overseas mining companies – or individuals using them as cover – have begun trying to take a cut from the illegal mining happening on their patch.
‘They make the chaos’
At a mining camp near Shire, a young woman told us that her sister’s six-month-old baby had recently died of a mysterious illness. The child was buried without a clear cause of death having been established, but she believes it was because of chemicals that leached into the drinking water.
Tigray’s gold rush has lined the pockets of a few, but for countless others it has brought death and disillusionment. Dozens have been killed in clashes at mining sites and untold more will suffer long-term effects of toxic land. Gold has transformed Ethiopia’s political landscape – and as its value continues to rise in an increasingly uncertain world, so too will the incentives to expand production at all costs.
The future of EAM’s projects are uncertain. Tigray’s new interim president is trying to consolidate control over mining, and many artisanal projects appear to have been paused. Equipment at some of the larger sites, including Mato Bula and Da Tambuk, have been handed over from the Chinese to Tigrayans. Whether this indicates a material change in who is benefiting from these sites is not clear. But whoever controls these sites moving forward, the root problems are likely to persist.
“What we now see in Tigray is not just an environmental, economic and security crisis of a colossal scale,” Getachew Reda, the former president of Tigray’s interim administration, told TBIJ. “It will also help to precipitate a regional crisis. Those [benefiting from the gold trade] have a vested interest in destabilising the region, because it is better to fish in troubled waters.”
Sitting under dim lights in a bar in Shire, an ex-soldier told us how he quit the army several months ago, angered by the corruption he saw throughout the ranks. But he seemed resigned to the fact that illegal gold mining will only continue to spread across the region.
“Tigrayan commanders, federal officers, foreigners […] they make the chaos and then they profit from the chaos,” he said.
“They all benefit. Except the people of Tigray.”
