"Women protesters attack Chinese-run mine in Guinea Bissau" 21 April 2025

Women protesters in Guinea-Bissau on Sunday attacked a Chinese-run site in the northwest of the country mining zircon, setting fire to equipment, the interior minister and witnesses said.

Several women and a village leader were arrested following the protest at Nhiquin, near the resort town of Valera not far from the border with Senegal, witnesses said.

"All the facilities have been burned down," Interior Minister Botche Cande told reporters after visiting the site, without specifying what exactly had been destroyed.

One of the women who took part in the protest, Aissato Cadjaf, said: "We told them we didn’t want sand extracted without our consent."

“All our rice fields are destroyed. There are no more fish in the small river near the site.” But no one had listened, despite their protests, she said.