Daijiworld Media Network - Khartoum
Khartoum, Sep 16: At least 67 people have been killed after a gold mine collapsed in a remote area of Sudan’s West Kordofan province, a medical group and survivors said on Wednesday.
The collapse occurred at the al-Zara gold mine in Nuhud, a town controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting Sudan’s military since April 2023.
The Sudan Doctors Network, a medical group monitoring the country’s war, said the death toll could rise as rescuers continued searching for people trapped under the rubble. It said the mine was an informal operation employing unregulated workers and lacked basic safety and protective measures.
However, a local administration official told The Associated Press that 82 bodies had been recovered. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said dozens of people were still missing.
According to the official, the collapse began on Sunday in one of the mine shafts before spreading to other interconnected shafts. Rescue efforts have been hampered by a lack of equipment, with only one privately owned forklift available to remove debris.
Two survivors contacted by phone and the physicians’ network said the collapse occurred on Tuesday evening.
The Kordofan Observatory, which monitors the region, said at least 70 miners had been killed or were missing. It said the mine stretches for more than one kilometre across fragile, sandy terrain and employs informal workers.
Survivor Khairal-Sayed Gabara described the collapse as “massive” and said machinery required to remove the soil and rubble was unavailable.
“There were dozens of people working in the mine,” he said, adding that rescuers lacked equipment to remove dirt and stones and search for survivors at depths of more than 30 metres.
Another survivor, Al-Amin Suliman, said 60 bodies had been recovered by Wednesday morning and that several people remained trapped underground.
Sudan is a major gold producer, but deadly mine collapses are common because safety standards are not widely enforced. A mine collapse in 2023 killed 14 miners, while another in 2021 claimed 38 lives.
The al-Zara mine is among thousands of small-scale and informal gold mines scattered across Sudan, where the ongoing war has contributed to a severe humanitarian crisis and pushed some areas into famine.
Experts commissioned by the United Nations have reported that large quantities of Sudanese gold have been smuggled out of the country to finance the RSF, which controls gold-producing areas in Darfur and Kordofan.
Sudan descended into full-scale war in April 2023 after fighting broke out between the RSF and the Sudanese military. The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data monitoring group, although aid organisations say the figure is likely an undercount and the actual death toll could be much higher.