The Ministry of Mines of Ethiopia said foreign nationals mainly Chinese were found involved in smuggling of gold out of Ethiopia in collaboration with artisan miners.
This is indicated by the Minister of Mines, Takele Uma, who briefed media on Friday. He indicated that the Ministry has conducted two weeks of operations to seize the foreign nationals involved in gold smuggling out of Ethiopia.
The mining areas the foreign nationals were collaborating to smuggle the gold are found in Oromia, Benishangul Gumz, and South West regions of Ethiopia, according to the Minister. It is indicated that currently those captured while smuggling gold are being investigated by the Government of Ethiopia.
Reports show that artisan gold miners in Ethiopia have been contributing more a lot for the increase of the country’s export earnings from gold.
In recent years Ethiopia’s gold export earnings has been increasing and generated $546 million last year concluded July 7, 2022. Last year it was the second top commodity in terms of generating huge amount of forex for Ethiopia next to coffee, which generated $1.43 billion.
The latest crackdown of gold smugglers by the Ministry is expected to increase hard currency income of Ethiopia from gold at the end of current budget year.
Latest media report shows that over the past years many Chinese are found engaged in unethical and illegal mining and timber businesses in African countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, among others.