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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Emmanuel Akinwotu west Africa correspondent

‘A wonderful accomplishment’: success for cleanup of Nigeria’s deadly lead pollution

Children run past drawings of helicopters on a wall outside an MSF clinic providing assistance to children and women with lead poisoning in Anka, Zamfara state
Children at an MSF clinic in Anka, Zamfara state. Hundreds died and many more were left with brain damage as a result of pollution from local mining. Photograph: Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty

For five years, Frederick Chukwuemeze had the grim task of treating children poisoned by lead in Anka, a mining town in north-west Nigeria.

Since 2010, more than 600 children have died from lead poisoning in Zamfara state and hundreds more have been left with brain damage and physical disabilities as a result of hazardous artisanal gold mining.

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