Mohamed Bayoh climbed into the deep, pitch-black hole, hoping to emerge with a nugget that would change his life.
The 26-year-old Guinean is one of thousands of West Africans who have flocked to remote eastern Senegal in search of gold.
Women sit nearby, sorting the rocks into two mounds -- a big one for the discards and a much smaller one for the promising samples."Working here is like playing the lottery, you are never sure of winning," sighed Bayoh, who said he was nonetheless determined to stay put until he gets rich. The flakes are recovered after washing the dust with mercury -- a practice that is banned because of its health and environmental risks, but which remains widespread.
He recalled with nostalgia the time when"our mums" used to dig in the river bed, searching for nuggets, while the men went into the bush to hunt and collect honey.The Senegalese and foreigners generally get on well in Bantakokouta, although flareups do occur.In a square a little away from the shops, a young woman in tight blue shorts and a red T-shirt talked on the phone.
Traffickers lured the women with the promise of a job, transported them across West Africa and then pressured them to keep their mouths shut when the truth of their situation emerged.The trafficking has prompted the state to beef up vigilance and invest heavily in security and intelligence, a senior administrative official who wished to remain anonymous said.
"The gold mining sites are ideal for finding frustrated young people who want to earn money, and gold is very easy to hide and trade."
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