Bagega is an Hausa speaking village in northwestern Nigeria. The village became noteworthy during a 2021 campaign by international organizations to recognize lead poisoning of children in the area, as part of
artisanal gold mining.
Location
Bagega is located in the
Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara State, Nigeria. Bagega is surrounded by Dorca, Maigelma and Tuduki.
Economic activity
One of the major activities in Bagega is
artisanal mining
Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is a blanket term for a type of subsistence mining involving a miner who may or may not be officially employed by a List of mining companies, mining company but works independently, mining minerals using the ...
.
Lead poisoning
The dangers of
lead poisoning
Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, infertility, numbness and paresthesia, t ...
due to the artisanal mining in Bagega have drawn global attention and have been subject of several environmental research publications by organizations like
United Nations Environment Programme
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is responsible for coordinating responses to environmental issues within the United Nations system. It was established by Maurice Strong, its first director, after the Declaration of the United Nati ...
,
,
ReliefWeb
ReliefWeb (RW) is a humanitarian information portal founded in 1996. , it hosts more than one million humanitarian situation reports, press releases, evaluations, guidelines, assessments, maps and infographics. The portal is an independent sourc ...
,
Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF; pronounced ), known in some English-speaking settings as Doctors Without Borders, is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care. It is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) of French origin known for its projects in conflict zo ...
, and
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
.
In May 2012,
Doctors Without Borders
Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to:
Titles and occupations
* Physician, a medical practitioner
* Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree
** Doctorate
** List of doctoral degrees awarded ...
had reported that least 4,000 children were suffering from lead poisoning as a result of artisanal gold mining in Zamfara State in Nigeria. Later the same year,
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...
further called on the Nigerian government which had pledged close to US$5 million to clean up areas that had been contaminated with lead during artisanal gold mining operations because of high levels of lead in rock
ore
Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically including metals, concentrated above background levels, and that is economically viable to mine and process. The grade of ore refers to the concentration ...
.
SaveBagega was a viral campaign that started off on Twitter when
Hamzat Lawal first used the hashtag when he tweeted about the lead poisoning incident in Bagega,
Zamfara State
Zamfara (; ; Adlam script, Adlam: ) is a States of Nigeria, state in northwestern Nigeria. The capital of Zamfara state is Gusau and its current List of Governors of Zamfara State, governor is Dauda Lawal. Until 1996, the area was part of Soko ...
. At the time of Human Right's Watch participation in #SaveBagega, more than 400 children were reported dead and many of the children could not be treated.
By January 2013, the campaign had reached some one million people, and dozens of media outlets had picked up on the story. At the end of that month, the federal government released the $5.3 million.
In April, 2013, Médecins Sans Frontières announced that the environmental cleaning of the earth in Bagega village had started and they had started chelation therapy on the children, which leaches the lead from the blood In May 2013, the then Nigerian Minister for Environment,
Hadiza Mailafia announced that Bagega was safe for habitation after remediation.
References
{{Reflist
Populated places in Zamfara State