ANALYSIS: The criminalisation trap in Africa’s responses to artisanal mining

Thirty-seven boys and young men died in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Minna, Niger State, last month. Accused of being ‘illegal miners’, they were arrested during raids by the Mining Marshals – a special NSCDC unit targeting illegal mining.

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Yesterday, an investigative panel found they died of asphyxiation in ‘inhumane conditions’, calling the deaths preventable. Recommendations to compensate families, dismiss and prosecute the officers involved, and implement institutional reforms (among others) are significant, as they address the gravity of abuses and the need for holistic responses.

Such incidents are not unique to Nigeria, and offer a critical lens for examining recent human rights abuses at artisanal mining sites across Africa.

These sites are guarded by multiple actors, including state security, paramilitary outfits like NSCDC, private security, mercenaries and armed groups. Crimes they mete out against miners include trafficking, enslavement, extortion, sexual violence, child labour, forced recruitment and labour, arbitrary detention, torture and murder.

Artisanal miners and traders face not only abuses by government security forces, but also state failure to protect them from violations by non-state actors, including other miners.

In Central Africa, Institute for Security Studies research reveals that security forces in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Central African Republic (CAR) have perpetrated violence, including summary executions, against artisanal miners and mining communities. In the DRC, miners suffer abuse both from the Rwanda-backed M23 and private security guards.

South Africa’s zama zamas illustrate how illegal mining networks intersect with organised crime. Groups reportedly seize abandoned mines, extort other miners for protection, and steal gold from legal operations. Entangled in turf wars that inflame community conflict, these activities are compounded by alleged police corruption, limited enforcement capacity, and weak oversight of abandoned mines.

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The Krugersdorp gang-rape case highlights the severe security risks zama zamas pose. Similar patterns exist in the CAR, where the Séléka and Anti-Balaka profit from the country’s diamond trade, sometimes taking over mining sites.

Artisanal and small-scale miners (ASM) in Africa number roughly 13.2 million. There are 2.6 million in Central Africa alone, an increase of over 2,500 per cent from approximately 100,000 in 2013 – driven by a rising demand for mineral resources amid a surge in global commodity prices. Gold hit a record high of $4,000/ounce in 2025, with similar spikes in critical mineral prices.

Across Africa, ASM supplies substantial shares of mineral production, with an annual foreign exchange value of around $3 billion-$5 billion. ASM accounted for 32-41 per cent of Africa’s total gold production in 2022 and 52-74 per cent of global tantalum production between 2017 and 2023, underlining its significant role in the extractive economy.

The scale of ASM in Africa must also be understood in the context of low educational attainment and high unemployment. ASM appeals to young people with few livelihood options. For many, including out-of-school children, it’s a means of survival.

Regulatory gaps further expose miners to human rights abuses. Mining laws across Central Africa generally permit ASM, often within designated areas, and criminalise unlicensed activity. But artisanal miners struggle to obtain permission, facing bureaucratic delays, high administrative costs and complex permit procedures that leave many operating outside legal protections.

The state’s coercive implementation of regulations enables abuses at mining sites. And the criminalisation of ASM exposes miners to exploitation and violence by criminal elements, who commonly demand ‘taxes’, intelligence or ‘protection’ money in exchange for miners’ freedom to pursue their livelihoods. This coerced cooperation increases artisanal miners’ vulnerability, as criminals violate these agreements with lethal violence.

Without differentiating between survival miners and criminal networks, such transactional relationships can be misread as collusion, thereby legitimising security force targeting of miners.

The situation is exacerbated in countries like Chad and South Africa, where political elites and military personnel reportedly sponsor or engage in mining, employ artisanal miners, provide logistical support and receive gold in exchange for private protection. This creates conflicts of interest – and influences selective enforcement of regulations.

Many miners are driven by poverty. Criminalising ASM perpetuates their vulnerability, exposing them to unhealthy working conditions and exploitation, while governments penalise small-scale miners and not concession owners. It can also lead to unrest. In Ghana, some communities have resisted enforcement efforts, saying they threaten their livelihoods.

Criminalisation does not solve the problems posed by ASM; it merely drives miners underground, further exposing them to danger and exploitation, and fuelling crime. Crackdowns and lethal attacks against artisanal miners reveal a limited state understanding of ASM’s complexities, reluctance to confront entrenched mining interests, and inconsistent enforcement due to uncertainty over how to regulate it.

There are valid concerns about ASM’s economic, environmental, infrastructural and human security impacts in Africa and globally. However, purely coercive responses to this complex social phenomenon are counterproductive.

READ ALSO: Niger Miners’ Saga: NSCDC death cell cleaned to destroy evidence, probe panel member says

Recent events point to the securitisation of mineral wealth, state desperation to assert sovereignty over ungoverned spaces, minimal accountability and human rights protections, and environmental and governance failures. These dynamics suggest a tacit admission that mining regulations in resource-rich African countries have failed, while states continue to conflate ASM with illegal mining.

The October meeting in Accra on strengthening ASM across the continent was timely. It was attended by political and traditional leaders, the United Nations, the African Union, the private sector, media and international partners, and followed on from last year’s summit on the issue.

But authorities also need to recognise artisanal miners as partners in extractive economies. That requires legislative reforms that define ASM’s scope and protect artisanal miners from human rights abuses by rogue security and law enforcement agents and others. Where infractions occur, investigations and prosecutions should follow.

Countries should expand income-generating opportunities for youth to reduce recruitment into armed conflict and dependence on exploitative mining. That could include investing in industry-aligned vocational training, entrepreneurship, digital skills and creative industries that support their aspirations and economic independence.

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

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