Digging And Desperate: Afghans Risk Lives To Illegally Mine Gold
- By RFE/RL's Radio Azadi and
- Stuart Greer
Driven by poverty, people in Afghanistan's Badakhshan Province are risking their lives to illegally mine gold in the mountains. Using primitive tools, the backbreaking work is often the only source of income for many desperate families. But provincial authorities are cracking down, saying armed militant groups, including the Taliban, are involved in the illicit hunt for gold.