Brazil has airlifted 16 starving Yanomami tribesmen for urgent treatment after the government declared a medical emergency.
The indigenous people live in a reserve in the northern Brazilian state of Roraima.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has accused his predecessor, far-right Jair Bolsonaro, of genocide against the rainforest tribe.
The government declared a medical emergency after hundreds of Yanomami children died of malnutrition.
The deaths are linked to water pollution caused by mining and logging in the densely forested area, where food insecurity is rampant.
On Saturday, President Lula visited Roraima, which borders Venezuela and Guyana, after reports of severe malnutrition among Yanomami children and said he was “shocked” by what he found.
“More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a planned crime against the Yanomami, perpetrated by a government callous to their suffering,” he later said. “I came here to say that we will treat our natives as human beings.”
An estimated 28,000 indigenous people live in the Yanomami reserve. They hunt, practice small-scale slash-and-burn agriculture and live in small, scattered, semi-permanent villages.
During his four years in power, Mr. Bolsonaro often criticized the size of local reserves and promised to open up some of them to agriculture and mining. His government weakened environmental protection, and critics said his rhetoric encouraged illegal activities in the region.
Today, some 20,000 illegal miners are estimated to be working within the Yanomami reserve, which is rich in gold, diamonds and minerals. In 2021, miners in the area opened fire on the Yanomami using automatic weapons.
The new Lula government says more than 500 local children have died in the past few years from drinking mercury-contaminated water, which is directly linked to illegal gold mining.
Lula was sworn in as president on January 1 after defeating Jair Bolsonaro, and Brazilian society remains deeply polarized.
Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Gujajara said: “We must hold the previous government accountable for allowing the situation to deteriorate to the point where we see adults weighing as much as children and children lacking skin and bones. “
Interior Minister Flavio Dino also accused the previous government of abandoning the indigenous community and promised an investigation.
In addition to airlifting some seriously ill members of the tribe, Brazilian officials announced that the Ministry of Health would build a field hospital and send supplies and health professionals to the area.
Tropical medicine expert Dr Andre Sequeira told JEE News he had found cases of severe malnutrition in entire local families and called the situation “catastrophic” and “catastrophic”.
He said the Yanomami were not the only tribes facing serious threats to their existence, and he had seen “similar situations of lack of aid and care” in other indigenous areas.
“This is something that needs urgent attention, because our humanity depends on it”, said Dr Sequeira.
