The criminalisation trap in Africa’s responses to artisanal mining

Thirty-seven boys and younger males died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State, final month. Accused of being ‘illegal miners’, they had been arrested throughout raids by the Mining Marshals – a particular NSCDC unit focusing on unlawful mining.

Yesterday, an investigative panel discovered they died of asphyxiation in ‘inhumane conditions’, calling the deaths preventable. Recommendations to compensate households, dismiss and prosecute the officers concerned, and implement institutional reforms (amongst others) are important, as they deal with the gravity of abuses and the necessity for holistic responses.

Such incidents aren’t distinctive to Nigeria, and supply a vital lens for analyzing latest human rights abuses at artisanal mining websites throughout Africa.

These websites are guarded by a number of actors, together with state safety, paramilitary outfits like NSCDC, personal safety, mercenaries and armed teams. Crimes they mete out towards miners embody trafficking, enslavement, extortion, sexual violence, baby labour, compelled recruitment and labour, arbitrary detention, torture and homicide.

Artisanal miners and merchants face not solely abuses by authorities safety forces, but in addition state failure to shield them from violations by non-state actors, together with different miners.

In Central Africa, Institute for Security Studies analysis reveals that safety forces in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) have perpetrated violence, together with abstract executions, towards artisanal miners and mining communities. In the DRC, miners endure abuse each from the Rwanda-backed M23 and personal safety guards.

South Africa’s zama zamas illustrate how unlawful mining networks intersect with organised crime. Groups reportedly seize deserted mines, extort different miners for defense, and steal gold from authorized operations. Entangled in turf wars that inflame group battle, these actions are compounded by alleged police corruption, restricted enforcement capability, and weak oversight of deserted mines.

The Krugersdorp gang-rape case highlights the extreme safety dangers zama zamas pose. Similar patterns exist in the CAR, the place the Séléka and Anti-Balaka revenue from the nation’s diamond commerce, generally taking up mining websites.

Artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) in Africa quantity roughly 13.2 million. There are 2.6 million in Central Africa alone, a rise of over 2,500 per cent from roughly 100,000 in 2013 – pushed by a rising demand for mineral sources amid a surge in world commodity costs. Gold hit a document excessive of $4,000/ounce in 2025, with comparable spikes in vital mineral costs.

Across Africa, ASM provides substantial shares of mineral manufacturing, with an annual overseas alternate worth of round $3 billion-$5 billion. ASM accounted for 32-41 per cent of Africa’s complete gold manufacturing in 2022 and 52-74 per cent of world tantalum manufacturing between 2017 and 2023, underlining its important position in the extractive financial system.

The scale of ASM in Africa should even be understood in the context of low instructional attainment and excessive unemployment. ASM appeals to younger folks with few livelihood choices. For many, together with out-of-school kids, it’s a way of survival.

Regulatory gaps additional expose miners to human rights abuses. Mining legal guidelines throughout Central Africa usually allow ASM, usually inside designated areas, and criminalise unlicensed exercise. But artisanal miners wrestle to get hold of permission, going through bureaucratic delays, excessive administrative prices and complicated allow procedures that go away many working outdoors authorized protections.

The state’s coercive implementation of laws permits abuses at mining websites. And the criminalisation of ASM exposes miners to exploitation and violence by legal components, who generally demand ‘taxes’, intelligence or ‘protection’ cash in alternate for miners’ freedom to pursue their livelihoods. This coerced cooperation will increase artisanal miners’ vulnerability, as criminals violate these agreements with deadly violence.

Without differentiating between survival miners and legal networks, such transactional relationships might be misinterpret as collusion, thereby legitimising safety power focusing on of miners.

The state of affairs is exacerbated in international locations like Chad and South Africa, the place political elites and army personnel reportedly sponsor or interact in mining, make use of artisanal miners, present logistical help and obtain gold in alternate for personal safety. This creates conflicts of curiosity – and influences selective enforcement of laws.

Many miners are pushed by poverty. Criminalising ASM perpetuates their vulnerability, exposing them to unhealthy working situations and exploitation, whereas governments penalise small-scale miners and never concession homeowners. It may lead to unrest. In Ghana, some communities have resisted enforcement efforts, saying they threaten their livelihoods.

Criminalisation doesn’t clear up the issues posed by ASM; it merely drives miners underground, additional exposing them to hazard and exploitation, and fuelling crime. Crackdowns and deadly assaults towards artisanal miners reveal a restricted state understanding of ASM’s complexities, reluctance to confront entrenched mining pursuits, and inconsistent enforcement due to uncertainty over how to regulate it.

There are legitimate considerations about ASM’s financial, environmental, infrastructural and human safety impacts in Africa and globally. However, purely coercive responses to this advanced social phenomenon are counterproductive.

READ ALSO: Niger Miners’ Saga: NSCDC loss of life cell cleaned to destroy proof, probe panel member says

Recent occasions level to the securitisation of mineral wealth, state desperation to assert sovereignty over ungoverned areas, minimal accountability and human rights protections, and environmental and governance failures. These dynamics recommend a tacit admission that mining laws in resource-rich African international locations have failed, whereas states proceed to conflate ASM with unlawful mining.

The October assembly in Accra on strengthening ASM throughout the continent was well timed. It was attended by political and conventional leaders, the United Nations, the African Union, the personal sector, media and worldwide companions, and adopted on from final 12 months’s summit on the problem.

But authorities additionally want to recognise artisanal miners as companions in extractive economies. That requires legislative reforms that outline ASM’s scope and shield artisanal miners from human rights abuses by rogue safety and regulation enforcement brokers and others. Where infractions happen, investigations and prosecutions ought to observe.

Countries ought to broaden income-generating alternatives for youth to scale back recruitment into armed battle and dependence on exploitative mining. That may embody investing in industry-aligned vocational coaching, entrepreneurship, digital abilities and artistic industries that help their aspirations and financial independence.

Titilope F Ajayi is a Senior Research Consultant, and Oluwole Ojewale is a Senior Researcher in the Central Africa Observatory on the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).

(This article was first printed by ISS Today, a Premium Times syndication companion. We have their permission to republish).