Ivory Coast launched an operation on Monday to shut down hundreds of illegal gold mining sites blamed for violence, unregulated immigration and environmental destruction, the defence and mining ministers said.
The West African nation is recovering from a decade-long political crisis that ended in a brief 2011 civil war, and the government is now seeking to develop the mining sector as part of efforts to diversify the economy.
Informal, unregulated gold mining became rampant during the years of turmoil due to the absence of state authority, particularly in the rebel-occupied north.
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