About 2 million people work in 800 artisanal mining sites in Burkina Faso. These statistics were given by Kambiré Edouard of the Alliance for Responsible Mining at the national workshop on proposals for better integration of artisanal, small-scale mining into the formal economy and better promotion of human rights on artisanal mining sites, held on 15 February 2023. For him, women are more or less represented on artisanal mining sites in Burkina Faso.
Many women are involved in activities such as grinding, catering and related activities in the mine. On these sites, women are victims of several forms of gender-based violence.
They are victims of numerous inequalities, including the lack of access to land and mining titles to practice mining crafts on the same basis as men. They are victims of discrimination and forced labour in a predominantly male world. Despite this, stereotypes prevent them from working in the artisanal mining sector. A certain category of people think that all women go to the mines to work as prostitutes, which does not help their already unjust situation. However, it would be necessary for the Burkinabe state to fight against the injustices and violence of which women are victims in these places of lawlessness.
Rachid Ouédraogo
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