Gold and Guns: Aftershocks of War

by Kaleab Girma and Ashenafi Endale

Back to Part 1
How Military Rule, Foreign Deals, and a Looming Crisis Plunder Post-War Tigray

When an excavator appeared at Tsion’s doorstep in the Tigray region of Ethiopia, the 37-year-old mother immediately understood why it came. Accompanying the machine was a group of foreigners, escorted by armed TDF members.

“They told me they needed the land for mining,” she said. “I refused, and they imprisoned me.” After a week of detention, Tsion was released. But upon returning home, she was devastated by what she saw.

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The land was almost gone. They had excavated it and transported all the soil elsewhere. Within a week, they had dug day and night. They did it because my land had gold. They took the soil, washed it in another location, and extracted the gold.

Tsion

Tsion has never been the same since. Beyond losing her ancestral farmland and any gold it held, she has also suffered mentally and emotionally. Her experience reflects a broader tragedy unfolding across Tigray.

Land grabs and clashes are frequent at illegal mining sites across Tigray, where several dangerous confrontations have erupted over gold-rich areas.

These often break out when local residents resist attempts by Tigray TDF generals to seize land and hand it over to foreign mining operators. Disputes over gold profit-sharing are also a frequent trigger.

A particularly deadly clash occurred in August 2024 in Rahwa village. The area, known for its substantial gold reserves, has been heavily militarized and densely populated by illegal miners since the end of the conflict. Witnesses report that more than twenty people were killed in a violent altercation between local laborers and foreign operators. The conflict reportedly began when the locals demanded a share of the gold proceeds.

Media suppression has become another concerning trend linked to the illegal gold trade. In March 2025, this reporting team was detained and interrogated while reporting on the illicit gold market in Tigray before being released. The team was were forced to delete camera footage. 

In a separate incident in December 2024, three journalists from Tigray Television were kidnapped while investigating illegal mining activities in Tigray. The journalists were abducted by unidentified individuals under unclear circumstances and were released hours later.

A joint field survey conducted by several opposition political parties in Tigray also reveals widespread reprisals and killings of individuals who report illegal mining activities. The survey highlights specific cases of violence against opposition party members and local activists opposing illegal mining operations.

Health Crisis & Environmental Collapse

Illegal gold mining in Tigray has led to widespread environmental damage and serious health risks from the use of toxic chemicals such as mercury and cyanide. The toxic exposure from mining activities is leading to acute poisoning, respiratory diseases, cancers, and irreversible health damage, disproportionately impacting vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women, and the elderly.

In an open letter addressed to Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tadele Mengistu, who was serving as head of the Transport & Communication Bureau of Tigray, urgently highlighted the unregulated use of toxic chemicals in mining operations across Tigray and called for immediate WHO intervention.

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The unregulated use of toxic chemicals, including cyanide, mercury, and arsenic, in mining operations is causing widespread environmental and public health disasters

Tadele Mengistu - Head of the Transport & Communication Bureau of Tigray

“The unregulated use of toxic chemicals, including cyanide, mercury, and arsenic, in mining operations is causing widespread environmental and public health disasters,” Mengistu wrote in December 2024.

He warned that the contamination of rivers, agricultural lands, and ecosystems is threatening vital water sources, such as the Tekeze River, and rendering farmlands barren.

Mengistu also called for an international investigation into those responsible for the destruction, including the federal government and “foreign entities.”

In 2024, the Tigray administration issued an order to suspend all mining activities following reports of the use of hazardous chemicals, such as mercury and cyanide. However, this directive was not enforced.

According to the Addis Standard, a local media outlet, protests by residents of Asgede district against the use of harmful chemicals earlier this year resulted in the arrest of more than 20 residents by local security forces.

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If left unchecked, large areas of Tigray could become uninhabitable, displacing populations and causing irreversible damage to biodiversity. The contamination risks erasing Tigray's cultural and environmental heritage, leaving a toxic legacy that could persist for generations

Tadele Mengistu - Head of the Transport & Communication Bureau of Tigray

The side effects of mercury exposure have long been established by the scientific and international community. Extended exposure can cause mercury poisoning and lead to kidney damage. It can impair hearing, vision, and balance.

“We are already seeing the effects. There have been instances of cattle and goats dying, and children suffering from skin ailments in affected areas,” said Desta Hailu, an environmental geologist and lecturer at Mekelle University. 

“If a parent is exposed to these chemicals, their children may suffer severe birth defects,” he added.

Desta stresses that government must intervene and hold polluters accountable. “These companies and individuals must be penalized, and those penalties should fund rehabilitation and compensation efforts. Above all, they should be banned from continuing operations.”

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However, because this rampant illegal gold mining is being run by government officials and security forces, we are unable to deliver justice to the people.

Judge in Shire town

A judge in Shire town, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of repercussions, said his courtroom is seeing more and more cases arising from environmental hazards caused by illegal mining operators.

The cases involve “farmers, landowners, and residents whose livestock have died, whose soil has been degraded, and whose children’s skin has been affected” and who are suing the operators of the mining sites, the judge said. 

Discrepancies in Export Figures Trace Ethiopia’s Smuggled Gold to UAE

Multiple studies have identified the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) as a major destination for Africa’s smuggled gold. In 2019, a Reuters investigation found that billions of dollars’ worth of gold was being smuggled out of Africa every year through the UAE, which served a gateway to markets in Europe, the United States and beyond.

A more recent report by  SWISSAID, an NGO, found that between 2012 and 2022, some 2,569 metric tonnes of undeclared gold from Africa—then worth a staggering $115 billion—ended up in the U.A.E. 

Under current gold prices, the same amount of gold would be worth $278 billion.

Multiple studies have identified the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) as a major destination for Africa’s smuggled gold. In 2019, a Reuters investigation found that billions of dollars’ worth of gold was being smuggled out of Africa every year through the UAE, which served a gateway to markets in Europe, the United States and beyond.

A more recent report by SWISSAID, a Swiss NGO, found that between 2012 and 2022, around 2,569 metric tonnes of undeclared gold from Africa—then worth a staggering $115 billion—ended up in the U.A.E. 

Under current gold prices, the same amount of gold would be worth $278 billion.

These gaps are not incidental; rather, they reflect a broader pattern, in which the U.A.E functions as more than just a passive recipient of illicit gold from illegal gold sellers and traders. This role is also consistent with a wider strategic stance attributed to the U.A.E: attracting billions in trade, cultivating deep regional influence, and leveraging that power to secure vital resources. 

Ethiopia’s official ties with the U.A.E also reflect this dynamic. Since taking office in 2018, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed  has relied heavily on Gulf capital to support his ambitious development agenda. Just months into his term, the U.A.E pledged $3 billion in aid and investment to back his economic and political reforms and to ease Ethiopia’s foreign currency shortages.

The U.A.E has financed numerous high-profile projects in Ethiopia, including the Unity Park in Addis Ababa and a stadium currently under construction, with a reported investment of $57 million.

Several investigative reports have also uncovered the U.A.E. ’s involvement in the Tigray War, alleging that it provided substantial military support to the Ethiopian government. This support reportedly included air bridges, weapons, drone supplies, and training for the Ethiopian Republican Guard.

While support has been arriving from Dubai, Ethiopia’s gold has been flowing in the opposite direction toward the U.A.E.

The United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN Comtrade), detailed imports and exports statistics reported by countries, shows that the majority of Ethiopia’s official gold exports in recent years have been destined for Dubai. 

But this trade data also shows more than official exports. A comparison of gold exports reported by Ethiopia with gold imports declared by the U.A.E reveals significant discrepancies, indicating smuggled gold reported as imported one.

Between 2021 and 2023, the National Bank of Ethiopia officially reported gold exports valued at $1.148 billion. However, Dubai reported importing $1.6397 billion worth of gold from Ethiopia during the same period, indicating an unaccounted $490 million in gold exports in 3 years. 

Experts believe that Dubai’s import figures vastly undercount Ethiopian gold. 

Marc Ummel, Head of the Raw Materials Unit at SWISSAID and co-author of SWISSAID’s study on undeclared African gold flow,  notes that assessing gold smuggling from Ethiopia requires examining the export figures of neighboring countries. “Ethiopia is a landlocked country. Some of the Gold smuggled from Ethiopia typically exits through Eritrea and Somalia before reaching U.A.E,” he explained.

“In 2023, the U.A.E declared it imported 5 tonnes of gold from Somalia. While Somalia does have some small-scale mining, the volume of exports is suspiciously high.

“It seems obvious that a portion of this gold is actually smuggled from countries like Ethiopia,” Ummel said. “Looking at the region as a whole, it seems clear that a substantial amount of gold entering the UAE from East Africa is routed through neighboring countries to obscure its Ethiopian origins.”

In 2023 alone, the U.A.E reported importing 37.9 tonnes of gold from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Eritrea, valued at $2.28 billion.

Tigray’s Uncertain Future

Amid internal divisions within Tigray’s leadership, TPLF, the region’s military, has emerged as the dominant political force. A high-ranking TDF general has now been appointed as the new interim president of the Tigray region, replacing Getachew. 

Tensions are once again mounting between the federal government and Tigray’s regional authorities. High-stakes rhetoric has returned, threatening the fragile post-Tigray war transition.

A familiar source of friction, illegal gold mining, has also re-emerged as a key point of contention, with major public announcements implicating military generals in illicit mining activities. In mid-May 2025, foreign nationals were barred from entering Tigray. 

As the situation escalates, many fear the region could once again descend into conflict, prolonging the suffering of the people of Tigray.

Reporting for this story was funded by Transparency International. A version of this story is being co-published with The Continent.

Back to Part 1
How Military Rule, Foreign Deals, and a Looming Crisis Plunder Post-War Tigray

Kaleab Girma

Kaleab Girma

Kaleab Girma is a reporter and researcher based in Ethiopia.
Ashenafi Endale

Ashenafi Endale

Ashenafi Endale is a journalist and researcher based in Addis Ababa, where he is Editor-In-Chief of The Reporter newspaper. For more than three years, Ashenafi has been reporting on illicit mining networks with deep roots in domestic and regional conflicts in the Horn of Africa and other issues.
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More From the Series

Chapter 1: East Goes West
Chapter 2: Ghana
Chapter 3: Niger
Chapter 4: Senegal
Chapter 5: Sudan
Chapter 6: Ecuador
Chapter 7: Brazil
Chapter 8: Mexico

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Afonso, 28, Congo
Upstairs in one of the big bedrooms of the Scalabrinian Mission Afonso, a 28-year-old migrant from Congo, explained how he came from Kinshasa in 2015 by boat, escaping from the violent conflicts raging in his own country. He hired the service of smugglers and came on a cargo ship with a number of others. He paid for part of the trip by working on the ship. He was left in the coast of Santos, a city 55km away from Sao Paulo. He is now searching for a job.

“K.”, 39, Sierra Leone
At Caritas, a non-profit providing support to refugees and migrants, we met “K” (who asked not to reveal his full name), who had left Sierra Leone three months ago. His grandfather was a chief priest of a secret society for whom it is a tradition to initiate the oldest son of the family when the former elder dies. A Christian and a graduate in Information Technology, “K” refused to take part in the ritual and says he was then targeted. He fled to stay with family in the interior of the country, but was kidnapped and held captive in the forest. One night he managed to escape to the city and met a woman from a Christian organization which provided airplane tickets so he could leave immediately for Brazil.

Jorge, 25, Guinea-Bissau
Jorge is a trained engineer who came to Brazil two years ago, who is now selling counterfeit and smuggled clothes in a local market. His Brazilian girlfriend is now pregnant and he is waiting for a work permit in order to get a job as mason. He said that when Federal Police went to his home address to confirm he was living there - an essential step in the process of issuing a work visa to a migrant - his house mates thought they wanted to arrest him and denied he lived there. It delayed his chance of getting a permit that would allow him a legal and better-remunerated job. The lack of trust in Brazilian law enforcement is a huge issue among refugees and migrants, many say that they rarely provide help or support, but instead only make their lives more difficult.

Abu, 37, Senegal
In República Square in the downtown Centro neighbourhood, African migrants sell clothes - some of them counterfeit designer wear,, some not - and handicrafts. Abu, 37, from Thiès in western Senegal, came to Brazil in 2010 with the hope that World Cup would make Brazil a prosperous country and offer him a new life. He says migrants should be respected for having the courage to leave everything behind and restart from nothing. Discrimination and lack of jobs are an issue for Abu, so he says his plan now is to save money and go to Europe as soon as possible. When he first arrived, he had money to stay in a hotel for seven days. After that, he met people who got him a job as a street vendor for contraband and traditional Senegalese clothes sewn in Brazil with African fabrics. Every time the police come and seize the goods he sells, it can take up to five months to recover the money lost.

Ibrahim, 41, Senegal
Members of the Senegalese community gather in República Square every week for a party, mounting up their own sound system, bringing drums and singing. On the night we visit around 50 people were dancing and chanting traditional Senegalese songs. Later they take a seat and discuss issues important to the community. Ibrahim, one of the group, has a talent for sewing fake Nike and Adidas logos to clothing in an improvised atelier nearby. Although he is a professional tailor and prefers to dedicate his time to his own original work, he says financial pressures meant he was forced to join the market of counterfeit designer-label clothing.

Guaianazes street, downtown Sao Paulo

On Rua Guaianazes there is a run-down mosque on the second floor of an old and degraded building, which is frequented by many African migrants. Outside, the smell of marijuana and cheap crack is inebriating. Crowds gather on the streets in front of the packed bars, while different people ask us if we want cheap marihuana. We enter one bar that has literally no chairs or tables: there is a poster of Cameroon’s most famous footballer Samuel Eto’o on the wall, and a big snooker table in the centre while all around customers gamble, argue and smoke. The bar tender tells us it is a Nigerian bar, but that it is frequented by Africans of all nationalities. Among the offers of cheap marijuana, crack and cocaine, laughs, music and loud chat, you can barely hear to the imam's call. Rua Guaianazes is considered to be the heart of Cracolandia, a territory controlled by organized crime for more than a decade and now reportedly home to some African-led drug trafficking gangs.

Santa Efigenia neighbourhood
Santa Efigenia is an area of around ten street blocks in the heart of the Centro area where locals says you “won't find anything original product or any product that entered the country legally”. There are dozens of galleries with local merchants, migrants and hawkers selling their wares, and crowds shouting and grabbing to sell counterfeit and contraband electronics late in the night. When we visited, a homeless old man was setting a campfire out of trash to heat himself on the corner, the people passing by aggressively yelling at him due to the black smoke his improvised urban survival mechanism was generating.

“H”, 42, Angola
“H” is an Angolan woman now living in a house rented from the Baptist church. The area outside the house is a “boca de fumo” - an open drug dealing spot managed by armed guards. “H’s” house is annexed to the church building itself, and is very rustic and simple. She arrived a year ago with two of her children, and also pregnant. She says that after the family of the Angolan president took over the market of smuggled goods in her country, her small import business started to crumble. Her husband and two more daughters are still there. She is currently unemployed, but happy that her young son is studying, although often he comes home complaining about racism at school. “H” does not want him to play with the neighbourhood children, she is afraid he will be drawn to narco-trafficking if he gets in with the wrong crowd. In the long run, she wants to go back to Angola, but only under “a different political situation.”

Lalingé restaurant, Sao Paulo
Arami, the owner of the bustling restaurant Lalingé – which means “The Princess” in her language – has been in Brazil for seven years. She opened the restaurant a year ago so that the African community in the Centro neighbourhood has a place to gather and eat food from their continent. It’s the kind of place people arrive at any time of the night or day, order their food and chat.

Scalabrinian Mission, Canindé neighbourhood
The Scalabrinian Mission in the neighborhood of Canindé provides philanthropic aid to migrants. Soror Eva Souza, the director, says they have helped people from Africa (Angola, Congo, Guinea, Togo, Nigeria, South Africa, Mali, British Guyana, Somalia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and Uganda), North Africa and the Middle East (Syria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt), Asia (Cambodia, South Korea, the Philippines, Bangladesh), Europe (The Netherlands, Russia, France) and Latin America and the Caribbean (Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, Haiti, Cuba). The Mission provides housing, food, clothing, medication and facilities for migrants. They only receive a small amount of financial support from local government, but work to help migrants find a job so they can live independently. Souza says many of those who arrive at the house are ill: some are seriously injured, others sick from the journey or the conditions they were living in before arriving in Sao Paulo. Since 2015, she says she has seen  human trafficking and slavery victims, drug mules, political refugees, and people who have lost their families en route. When we visit 40-year-old Mohamed Ali, from Morocco, was trying to find a job with the support of the Mission.

Clement Kamano, 24, Guinea-Conakry
Kamano was studying Social Sciences at Université Général Lansana Conté when he took part in the protests of September 28th, 2009, which ended up in a massacre with more than 150 people killed. Afterwards, he was repeatedly harassed because of his involvement in social movements. Fearing he might be killed, his father bought him a ticket to Brazil. Now he is a political refugee, who is almost fluent in Portuguese, and who enjoys talking about the sociologist-philosophers Emile Durkheim and Max Weber, even Leibniz and Nietzsche. He is currently applying to join a federal university in Sao Paulo.

What’s “cereza” in Arabic?
In a bright classroom in the centre of Quito, a group of students sit around a whiteboard. “Yo veo la televisión con mis amigos en la tarde,” they repeat after the teacher, “I watch television with my friends in the afternoon.” “Yo tomo el bus par ir al trabajo,” “I take the bus to go to work.”

Around the table are two Syrians who fled the war, one Cameroonian who says he wanted to escape the Anglo-French conflict in his homeland, two Afghans, one a former top-ranking police officer, an Egyptian and a Sri Lankan who wanted to go anywhere where he could make enough money to help his family. Migrants who arrive in Ecuador from Africa, Asia and the Middle East face a steep learning curve: it might be relatively easy to enter the country, thanks to Ecuador’s liberal open-border policy, but finding work here and learning Spanish can be difficult. Today their teacher is translating between Arabic, Spanish and English. “Market”? asks one. “Souk” replies another member of the group, while a fellow student does a quick translation into Pashtu.

Experts say some of those who come through language centres like these are planning on continuing their journey north, others on staying in Ecuador.

A little piece of Nigeria, in Quito
As the night closes in, Grace, a 25-year-old law graduate from Cameroon, dashes between a barbeque out on the street and the kitchen in the small Nigerian restaurant where she is working the night shift, as a television showing an African football league plays in the background. She wears a dark top, and her hair pulled back, as she fans the tilapia grilling on the coals. When she was denied a Canadian visa, despite having a scholarship, she decided she still wanted to leave Cameroon, where she complains of a lack of jobs and opportunities for the country’s English-speaking minority. With three friends, she bought a ticket heading west for Ecuador where she heard she could enter with her invitation to study at a language school. She soon converted to a missionary visa, and now works here and sings in the choir at a church up the hill, teaching Sunday school at the weekends. Like many of her customers, she also wants to travel north to the US or Canada, but only with the correct papers. “If you go without papers and through the jungle, you might be lost. Then my family is lost as well.”

The Afghan police officer
Asadullah, a former police officer, spent 31 years training new recruits and fighting terrorist groups in his country. Among the documents he smuggled out with him is a photograph of him with Robert Gates, the former US Secretary of Defence, paperwork from a training programme at the National Defence University in Washington DC, and training certificate from the George C Marshall centre in Europe, signed by the German defence minister.

His career had been high-profile and illustrious, but while that brought recognition from the Americans and their allies, it also brought him the unwelcome attention of the Taliban and other extremist groups.

For three years before he fled, he says terrorists were calling him saying he needed to end his work with the police. “Come and work with us,” they’d coax. When he refused, someone tried to throw acid on his child at school – that was when he decided to leave.

Today the family are renting a spacious flat in central Quito, with a big beige sofa and swept wood floors. A big TV is mounted on the wall behind him, and one of his children brings in sweet tea and fruits. His wife and six of his children are with him, awaiting a decision from the migration authorities on their asylum case. For the sake of his children – who all speak English – Asadullah wants to go to the US.

“I want to go to America, but it’s a process: it will take a lot of time,” he says. “We have been waiting to get an answer. I only came here because the bad people wanted to kill us. I’m just here so I’m safe.” He considered going to Europe, but considered the route there more dangerous. “Many Afghan people wanted to go to Europe, to Turkey, but many people died in the sea.”

The Artist
Mughni Sief’s paintings once made him a well-known artist in his native Syria: he taught fine art in a top university, and was invited to Lebanon to show his work. But since the war, and his decision to flee, his paintings have taken on a darker tone. One , “Even The Sea Had A Share Of Our Lives, It Was Tough” touches on the horrors so many Syrians have seen as they try to flee to safety.

“This painting is about Syrians crossing the sea to go to Europe from Turkey. I put this fish head and cut the head off to show the culture of ISIS. This here is the boat people,” he explains in his spartan apartment in Ecuador’s capital, Quito. “Syria was empty of people, and there are so many people dying in the sea.”

From the windows of his bedroom-come-studio, you can see the mountains, washing hanging in the sunshine on a neighbours balcony, beige tiles. Behind him the bed sheets – which came with the house – are adorned with images of teddy bears and the phrase “happy day.”

In the corner is a small, rolling suitcase in which he brought his wood carving tools, crayons, and charcoals from Syria: everything from his old life that he dared bring without alerting attention that he was leaving the country. In a small backpack he bought a Frederick Nietshce paperback, a birthday present from a friend, and a book he bought in Syria: “Learn Spanish in 5 days”. He didn’t bring any photos, in case his bag was searched.

Frustrated by restrictions he faced as a Syrian in Lebanon, he started to research other places where he might make a new start. He read that Ecuador was “one of the few countries that don't ask for a visa from Syrians. I had problems leaving Lebanon, and in El Dorado in Colombia but at Quito I came in no problem. The only question was: why are you coming to Ecuador, do you have money? I said nothing about asking for asylum so they just gave me a tourist visa.”

Soon after he made his asylum application, and today, he paints while he waits for a decision. “Before the war I was focused just on humans, on women, but when the war started that changed, and I began focusing on the miserable life that we live in Syria,” he says as he arranges three paintings on the bed. In one, he explains, is a woman who can’ face something in her life, so prefers to stop speaking.

Tricked
Although many of the migrants that make their way to Ecuador are able to travel more independently than those making the journey across the Mediterranean, examples abound of exploitation of some who arrive here. Mohammad, for example. He’s  a 24-year-old from Sri Lanka who first tried his luck in Malaysia, but was cheated by a travel fixer who took his money while promising him a work visa that never materialized. When he was arrested for working without the proper documents, a friend had to come and pay the police to get him out. Travelling west, to Ecuador, after religious violence broke out in his hometown, he says he paid someone he knows to help sort out his travel, unsure of how much he took as a cut. When he flew in, alongside a Sri Lankan family, the agent arranged for him to be picked up by an unknown woman who charged each of them again to take them to a hostel. He is now renting a room from a man he met at the mosque. Every day continues to be a struggle, he said.

“At home, I saw so many troubles each day. I decided to come here thinking maybe things will be good. But I did one week working in a restaurant, they treated me like a slave. For three months I was searching for work. They are good people here but I have no opportunities here. Seven months I have nothing, I’m wasting my time.”