ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Ethiopia has suspended a gold mining firm’s license after weeks of protests in a town near the mine by local people who accuse the company of polluting their source of water and the atmosphere, a government official said.

“The ministry suspended the license in response to the demands of the people,” Bacha Faji, a spokesman for Ethiopia’s Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas, told state-affiliated television Fana.

Owned by Ethiopian-born Saudi billionaire Mohammed Hussein al-Amoudi, MIDROC Gold Mine Plc has operated the open-cast mine in Guji zone of the Oromia region for more than two decades.

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