Ten people have been killed in violent clashes between security forces and artisanal gold miners in Guinea's north-eastern Siguiri region, the government has said, in the latest deadly turn in a crackdown on unregulated gold mining.

The clashes took place at Kintinian, in the Bouré-Balato area near Siguiri, where a major artisanal gold-mining site has become the focus of a government enforcement operation. Guineenews reported on Friday that the government had announced a toll of ten dead. The West Africa Democracy Radio network also reported that several people had been killed in a clash between security forces and artisanal miners in Bouré-Balato.

Clashes follow mining ban

The violence comes a week after the government imposed a ban on artisanal mining in the area, a decision that has led to the expulsion of thousands of foreign miners. The ban on unregulated and clandestine mining in Siguiri took effect on 2 November, after officials said unregulated digging had destroyed farmland, degraded land and polluted waterways in the gold-rich region near the Malian border.

Security forces were deployed to enforce the ban, dismantling informal mining sites and expelling workers, many of them foreign nationals from neighbouring countries including Burkina Faso, Mali, Togo, Niger, Ivory Coast and Ghana. A joint statement from Guinea's defence and security ministries said 1,263 people had been detained for alleged gold panning, and a trial over illegal gold mining opened on Thursday 12 November.

Bouré-Balato is home to a major artisanal gold-mining site, and tensions there have risen sharply since the ban was announced. Local reports spoke of machinery being set on fire and security forces opening fire, although the precise sequence of events at Kintinian has not been independently verified. The death toll of ten is the figure announced by the government; other unverified reports circulating locally put the number higher or lower.

A crackdown with regional fallout

The enforcement operation has already caused a major cross-border displacement crisis. Mali said it had taken in around 160,000 people expelled from Guinea since the operations began, and warned of a humanitarian emergency at the border. Burkina Faso has begun organising the return of its own citizens, and its security minister, Mahamadou Sana, criticised the way the operation was carried out, saying Ouagadougou had received no advance warning and alleging that some Burkinabe nationals suffered injuries.

Siguiri is Guinea's main gold-mining district and sits in one of the richest gold belts in West Africa, drawing artisanal workers from across the region. The military government, in power since 2021, has sought to raise state earnings from natural resources by renegotiating mining contracts and tightening control over the sector. Guinea inaugurated its first domestic gold refinery on 1 November, days before the ban took effect.

The government says the operations target unregulated mining and the environmental damage associated with it. Critics, including Burkina Faso's government, have questioned the treatment of expelled miners. The circumstances of the latest deaths in Siguiri have not yet been independently established, and no further official detail on the victims had been released at the time of publication.

Sources: West Africa Democracy Radio and Guineenews, via AfricaFrontPage. Further background: Gold Miners Club.