Environmental activist summoned by South Kordofan security

The National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) summoned environmental activist Ibrahim Naima to its offices in Abu Jubeiha in South Kordofan on Tuesday morning.

Naima told Radio Dabanga that the security services questioned him on his relationship with a locally distributed statement calling on the people of the region to resist gold factories using deadly cyanide by force of arms.

He said that he denied any connection with the statement, and pointed out to the NISS that “the resistance to these factories is run and carried out through an accredited committee that is known and recognised by all the official authorities in the locality”.

El Itimad gold factory south of Abu Jubeiha in South Kordofan reportedly resumed its mining operations on Saturday.

The factory was shut-down in mid-February as a result of objections from the locality residents because of its use of cyanide.

A member of the Environment Committee told Radio Dabanga from Abu Jubeiha that the resumption of the factory’s work is a challenge to the will of the locality population.

Protests

Sudan’s federal Ministry of Metals deployed police to protect the gold factories in reaction to protests against several gold mining factories in South Kordofan

The ministry sent a force of 190 policemen in two batches to protect the factories in Talodi, Abu Jubeiha and Kologi. The last batch arrived in Kologi on Sunday, but withdrew after locals started to gather in a large group.

Cyanide

Residents have protested the use of the chemical substance cyanide in the extraction of gold, which is harmful to human beings, the environment, and animals. Angry locals burned parts of a mining factory that belongings to El Hadaf Company in Talodi on 25 February. Earlier that month protesters managed to get the Kalogi commissioner to shut down one of the gold factories.

There are reportedly 40 factories in Talodi, 30 in Abu Jubeiha, and 30 in Kologi. Witnesses reported to Radio Dabanga that the first batch of about 90 policemen was deployed to the state on 10 March.