Indigenous Child Mortality Grows 18.5% in Brazil

10/06/2017 - 11h12

Mortality among indigenous children of less than five years of age grew 18.5%, and suicide among indigenous Brazilians of all ages rose 18%, according to the comparison between 2015 and 2016.

The data is part of the annual violence report against indigenous peoples released by the CIMI (Catholic Indigenous Missionary Council), connected to the CNBB (National Conference of Bishops of Brazil) in Brasilia, on Thursday (5).

According to the report, the number of murders went from 54 in 2015, to 56 in 2016. In the State of Maranhão, the number went from 3 to 11 cases. In Mato Grosso do Sul, there were 15 murders.

Last year, in June, a paramilitary group attacked guaranis camped in Caarapó (MS), which resulted in the death of Clodiodi Aquileu Rodrigues de Souza, and wounded six other Indians, including a child aged 12.

Over the last year, 106 indigenous Brazilians took their own life, a particularly higher figure for the Alto Solimões River region, which went from 13 cases in 2015, to 30 in 2016.

A recent research by the Ministry of Health shows that the suicide rate among the indigenous population between 2011-2015, of 15.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, is almost three times as high as the rate for the non-indigenous population.

In 2016, 20% of the 30 Indians who killed themselves in Mato Grosso do Sul were aged five to 14. CIMI's data show that, from 2000 to 2016, 782 Brazilian Indians committed suicide only in Mato Grosso do Sul.

Translated by ANA BEATRIZ DEMARIA

Read the article in the original language

	Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters
	Brazilian Indians carry a symbolic coffin, to show the death of indigenous people's rights, as they take part in a demonstration against the violation of indigenous people's rights, in Brasilia