At least 50 people are feared after an artisanal gold mine collapsed in Kamitunga town in South Kivu province, in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, according to authorities.
The incident occurred on Friday after heavy rains in the area caused the mine to cave-in. Photos circulated online showed several people gathered around the mine-shaft entrance.
The provincial governor Theo Kasi issued a statement in which he mourned “the tragic death of 50 people, mostly young people.”
Kasi added that search and rescue operations were ongoing “to identify our compatriots.”
His office also added that it was working to “implement measures to prevent such incidents from repeating”.
The town’s deputy mayor, Ngandu Kamundala, told Anadolu Agency the miners were unable to make it out “because the well was already filled with water and mud.”
“Their bodies have been buried under the rubble, there is no chance that there will be any survivors,” he said.
Local authorities also declared two days of mourning in light of the tragedy. Poor and young artisanal miners are the primary suppliers of minerals to multinationals through counters located in the provincial capitals.
Landslides and the collapses of mines in the DR Congo are sometimes caused by heavy rains. Mining accidents in the DR Congo usually occur in unsupervised artisanal mines in addition to the miners operating under poor safety standards.
16 people were killed in October 2019 after a landslide hit an abandoned mine, while 43 others were killed in a landslide at a copper and cobalt mine about four months earlier.
