Brazil’s federal police have launched a new raid on illegal gold miners operating in Indigenous Yanomami territory in the northern Amazon, officials said on Friday.

The invasion of miners has contributed to the spread of malaria among the Yanomami, with devastating consequences. Malarial infections have deprived villages of able-bodied men and women needed to hunt and tend plots of manioc and bananas, leading to food shortages. Miners have also polluted waters with mercury, which is used in gold mining. In recent weeks, images have emerged of malnourished Yanomami children with emaciated chests and distended bellies.

“This is a very severe humanitarian crisis,” Junior Hekurari Yanomami, head of the Yanomami and Ye’kuana Indigenous Health District Council told Yale Environment 360. “The worst in my lifetime.”

Earlier this week, special forces affiliated with Brazil’s environment and Indigenous agencies launched a campaign against the intruders, destroying a helicopter, an airplane, and a bulldozer, The Guardian reported. The federal police are now joining the effort against the miners, Reuters reports.

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