Global Roundup: Women Torch Chinese Mine in Guinea-Bissau, Trans Rights Protest, Feminism Combatting Climate Change, Overlooked Women Artists, Doechii on Fucking Things Up

Bissau, capital city of Guinea-Bissau. Photo: Shutterstock (This replaces an earlier photograph of a protest at a mine which was not from Guinea-Bissau)

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.

One protester said they had acted after the authorities failed to respond to their complaints that the activity was damaging their farms and ruining the local environment.

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.

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. -Aissato Cadjaf, protestor.

But no one had listened, despite their protests, she said.

Zircon is used in ceramics and the building industry.

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

“When the state makes an effort to find partners, nobody has the right to destroy their property,” he added, visibly irritated.

Cande said he would be sending more guards to the site to guarantee its security while it was rebuilt.

The women responsible had all fled and taken shelter in the forest, he added. “They must be tracked down and arrested.”

Edmundo Infanda, sub-prefect of Suzana, which takes in Nhiquin, said a lot of women had taken part in the protest and the local police could not stop their demonstration.