Illegal gold mining in Africa triggers chain of crises

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that illegal gold mining exploitation in the Sahel region of Africa has led to deforestation, mercury contamination of water sources and exacerbated armed conflicts. Criminal groups smuggle gold to the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland for refining by forging certificates of origin, and collude with terrorist organizations to form a “criminal fusion”, and the area of rainforest disappearing due to illegal mining in the Amazon region alone has been equivalent to 1.2 Shanghai municipalities.