Ecuadorean indigenous groups demand removal of hundreds of gas flares

Members of indigenous communities protest outside Ecuador's Ministry of Energy and Non-Renewable Natural Resources against the continued use of gas flaring by oil producers in the country's Amazon, despite a two-year-old Constitutional Court ruling ordering the government to halt the practice, in Quito, Ecuador March 24, 2022. The signs read "Justice that waits is not justice," "Land is an inheritance from your parents and a loan to your children" and "Justice for the Amazon." REUTERS/Johanna Alarcon

Leaders of Ecuadorean indigenous communities gathered in Quito on Thursday to demand the government comply with court orders to halt the use of hundreds of gas flares by oil producers in the country's Amazon.

The top court in oil-producing Sucumbios province said in mid-2021 that the use of flares by state oil company Petroecuador and private producers violated the right to health of nine local girls and their communities.