Cases of malnutrition and malaria in the region have skyrocketed in recent weeks, prompting the new leftist government of President Lula to declare a health emergency in Yanomami Indigenous reservation.
The Brazilian military has launched an operation to crack down on illegal gold miners accused of invading the massive Yanomami Indigenous reservation and spreading disease, violating human rights and destroying the environment.
The air force said on Wednesday it was deploying fighter jets and surveillance planes to wrest back control of the airspace over the remote Amazon rainforest territory and halt movement of small aircraft that resupply the outlaw mining camps.
Indigenous leaders say some 20,000 miners have set up illegal operations, raping and killing inhabitants, poisoning their water with mercury and ravaging the forest they depend on for food.
Police opened an investigation last week into crimes including genocide on the reservation, after images of starving Yanomami children shocked the world.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva issued an order on Monday closing the airspace over parts of the region and authorising the military to divert planes suspected of resupplying illegal camps.
"The problem has a cause, and we know what it is: illegal gold mining. It will be eradicated. We're going in ready to take them on," Defense Minister Jose Mucio said on Tuesday.
"All suspect flights will be diverted and the planes forced to land for identification."
The government has reported around 100 Yanomami children died of malnutrition and other diseases last year.
Mucio said he would visit the territory on Wednesday next week with the commanders of the army, air force, navy and federal police.
READ MORE: 'Genocide' in Amazon: Indigenous Brazilians resist mining intrusion
READ MORE: Brazil official seeks eviction of armed gold miners from Yanomami region
Genocide investigation
The air force says it has already flown 61 tonnes of food and medical supplies into Yanomami territory since last week, and set up a field hospital to treat Indigenous patients in Boa Vista, the capital of Roraima state.
The head of the field hospital, Juliana Freire Vandesteen, told a news conference medical personnel had treated 300 people so far, mostly children.
"There are a lot of cases of pneumonia, intestinal parasites, malaria and skin diseases," she said.
The Yanomami territory, the largest reservation in Brazil, sits on the country's northern border with Venezuela. It spans 96,000 square kilometres and is home to around 30,000 Indigenous inhabitants.
Illegal gold mining rose sharply in Brazil under far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2022), who pushed to open protected Indigenous reservations to mining and presided over a surge of destruction in the Amazon.
A Supreme Court judge on Monday ordered authorities to extend their genocide investigation to former officials in Bolsonaro's government.
READ MORE: Dozens of Yanomami children hospitalised in Brazil
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