At least 30 miners were killed on Tuesday (local time) in the western region of the Central African Republic when a site collapsed.
The incident occurred in the Abba region of the Nana-Mambere prefecture, as per one of the surviving miners, the Associated Press reported. The survivor also said that search operations are underway to locate more miners who are believed to be trapped in the region. However, he said that the chances of rescuing them alive “is getting slimmer.”
Souleymane Bi, the deputy mayor of the sub-prefecture, said that residents and rescuers did manage to pull out 30 bodies over several hours and that the injured are being treated.
“It is horrible and we are calling for help from organizations and all people of good will to help pull from the hole those who are unable to do so,” Bi said, as per AP.
Chaotic rescue efforts captured on camera showed how young miners were pulling out a body from the pit while a number of others were scattered around the site, shouting for help.
Evariste Ngamana, a government representative, said that authorities are “working hard to provide relief and assistance” to the victims.
Collapses of artisanal mines are not very uncommon in this region of Africa. Thousands of people work in these small-scale extraction mines without the necessary protection, thus making accidents deadly.
In June, eight miners died in western Central Africa when an illegal gold mine collapsed near the Cameroon border. Another such incident occurred in May when a collapse resulted in the death of several dozen individuals at the Be-Mbari mining site. Another collapse in mid-March led to the death of seven people in the village of Ngourroum.
“Hardly a month goes by without us being alerted to a collapse at a mining site,” a civil society spokesman had told news agency AFP after the June collapse.
Eastern Congo mine collapse
Earlier this year, a number of mines in eastern Congo collapsed as a result of a landslide, resulting in the death of at least 200 people.
The incident occurred at the Rubaya mines controlled by the M23 rebel group. A spokesperson for the group told AP that the landslide was the result of heavy rains in the region.
The government of the country said after the tragedy that these artisanal mines are dug by hand and are poorly constructed, which leads to such disasters,
“People dig everywhere, without control or safety measures. In a single pit, there can be as many as 500 miners, and because the tunnels run parallel, one collapse can affect many pits at once,” a former miner told AP.
