The Brazilian government has launched a special operation to expel tens of thousands of illegal miners from the country’s largest indigenous reserve – Yanomami territory in the northern state of Roirama.

The special forces have destroyed a helicopter, an airplane and a bulldozer used to drive roads through the jungle, as well as seized the boats belonging to illegal miners.

President Lula has accused the previous government of President Bolsonaro of driving the Yonamami people to the edge of death by allowing an estimated 25,000 illegal miners to enter the mineral-rich reserve, bringing violence and disease to the indigenous population.

Approximately 700 people have been medevacked to the state capital of Boa Vista where a field hospital has been set up there.

Aljazeera.