(Ecofin Agency) - 17 years ago, Gabon ended Comuf’s uranium business. Now known as Areva, the old mining company is called to take responsibility for the consequences of its past activities.

Indeed, long exposed to the mines’ radiation, former workers which are now sick and forgotten have decided to claim a compensation for the wrong incurred.

These workers have waited so many years to complain only because Areva, formerly known as Comuf, promised to take care of them but did nothing so far. Indeed, pressured by international NGOs and former French employees, the firm established in 2010 a health observatory to identify cases of illness associated to the mining activity so as to take care of them.

As at now, the observatory could not identify any such case in spite of the fact that 325 miners died of a pulmonary infection, one of the former miners revealed during an assembly held last Saturday… An act of bad faith or is it just that Areva has no intent to solve the issue? Hard to tell but what seems true are the tribulations of these old miners.

Discussing his situation, one of the miners told RFI: “Back at the factory, I was moving mud. This was pure ore. Currently I am ill: I have spots appearing on my feet which are also swollen. When they performed the biopsy, they discovered a tumor but did nothing so far. Here is the document they gave me. Areva abandoned me and did not attend to my problem”.

According to Comuf’s ex-workers, the group has “abandoned them using the observatory as a cover”. As a syndicate, they are now waiting for their claims to be taken into consideration.

Stéphanie C. Tohon