Air transport vital for Yanomami Indigenous

Health workers that support the Yanomami Indigenous people rely heavily on air transportation for urgent evacuations and cargo. An estimated 30-thousand Yanomami people live in Brazil's largest Indigenous territory, where severe malnutrition and disease, particularly malaria, are decimating their population in the Amazon rainforest.

The health of the Indigenous population has declined over the course of several years due to mining in the area that occupies fertile land, poisons rivers and destroys water sources.According to estimates from environmental and Indigenous rights groups, nearly 20-thousand miners are present in the area, attracted by high gold prices and urged on by former President Jair Bolsonaro.At least 570 Yanomami children died from untreated diseases during Bolsonaro's term, from 2019 to 2022.