STARVING indigenous people in Brazil were airlifted out of the northern state of Roraima today to receive urgent treatment after the new left-wing government declared a medical emergency.

Hundreds of Yanomami children have died in the last few years from malnutrition and mercury-contaminated water linked to mining and logging in the area, which is rich in gold, diamonds and minerals.

President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva has accused his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro of committing genocide against the rainforest tribe.

Lula visited the area on Saturday following reports of malnutrition and said he was shocked by what he found.

An estimated 28,000 indigenous people live in the Yanomami reserve in scattered semi-permanent villages, surviving by hunting and small-scale agriculture.

Under Mr Bolsonaro, the Brazilian government weakened environmental protections and opened indigenous reserves to mining, logging and agriculture at the expense of the locals.

Some 20,00 illegal miners are estimated to operate inside the Yanomami reserve and in 2021, miners opened fire on the community using automatic weapons.

Interior Minister Flavio Dino accused the previous government of abandoning the indigenous community and promised an investigation.

Minister of Indigenous Peoples Sonia Guajajara said: “We must hold the previous government accountable for allowing this situation to get worse to the point where we find adults weighing like children and children reduced to skin and bones.”

Campaign group Survival International has called for a six-point plan to address the crisis including removing the miners, sending in  health teams, and prosecuting politicians and businesses who have been profiting from the genocide.

Survival Brazil head Sarah Shenker said the early signs of action by  Lula are encouraging, adding that she was pleased he had “called it what it is: a genocide.”

She said: “The unprecedented and catastrophic health crisis engulfing the Yanomami people in northern Brazil is a genocide that’s been years in the making.

“Former president Bolsonaro deliberately opened the gates to the territory and encouraged thousands of gold miners to flood in.

“He dismantled the indigenous health service; cheered on the miners invading indigenous territories; and ignored the desperate pleas for action from indigenous organisations, Survival and many others when the scale of the crisis became clear.”