The health ministry declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory in response to reports of indigenous Yanomami children dying in Brazil from hunger and other illnesses brought on by illegal gold mining.
After visiting a Yanomami health clinic in Boa Vista in Roraima state on Saturday, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva tweeted, "More than a humanitarian disaster, what I observed in Roraima was genocide: a deliberate crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government oblivious to pain."