Burkina Faso's vanishing gold boom puts livelihoods at risk

FILE PHOTO: An excavator driven by Rosalie Guirou Kulga, 30, clears out rocks into a dumper at the gold mine, operated by Endeavour Mining Corporation in Hounde, Burkina Faso February 11, 2020. Picture taken February 11, 2020. Reuters/Anne Mimault/File Photo

OUAGADOUGOU (Reuters) - A gold mining boom in Burkina Faso over the last decade propelled Boukary Diallo from being a vendor on a market stall to running a meat business supplying a mine near Ouahigouya, his home town in the north of the country.

But as the West African country loses territory to Islamist militants and lurches from coup to coup, threatening to turn the boom to bust, Diallo is concerned he will be unable to retain all of his ten employees.