[2] The village has grown rapidly since 2006 due to the thousands of immigrant miners attracted by a local gold rush.

Before the discovery of gold, Diabougou was a traditional village of straw-covered mud huts where the people looked after goats.

[5] A 2011 report said that the gold rush had given the village a population of thousands, who were joining the unofficial part of the Senegalese mining industry.

The new population from nearby Mali is supplemented by workers who use motorbikes to cross the river to commute internationally each day.

[1] Regular work for boys is to carry large quantities of water from the river in plastic jugs so that gold may be extracted.

It has been speculated that the country's political stability may be undermined if rich resources are discovered, since traditionally the mining industry of Senegal has been relatively poor.