Gold mine collapse kills at least 100 people in Central African Republic

A landslide at an illegal gold mine has killed at least 100 people in the Central African Republic on the border with Cameroon. Local sources told AFP of the accident on Wednesday.

Search operations are still under way after the incident at the Zamboye mining site, about 50 kilometres from the town of Baboua, on Tuesday afternoon. Several local sources said that around 100 people had died and many others were injured in the latest of many such accidents in the mineral-rich nation.

“At this stage it’s difficult for us to establish a formal toll,” Baboua elected official Laurent Ngon Baba told AFP early on Wednesday. At least four of the victims were Cameroonian, according to the Cameroon Tribune.

Survivors were taken to hospital in Baboua while the search continued on Wednesday. The landslide is believed to have been caused by the collapse of several underground tunnels in which miners were operating, the Baboua public prosecutor said in a statement.

A judicial inquiry has been opened. Landslides are common in illegal operations outside state control in the Central African Republic.

Video images on social media showed a part of the ground at the huge open-pit mining site, where hundreds of artisanal miners work, break away and bury people in its path. Cedric Mbango, a miner at the site, described the incident as catastrophic.

“The ground completely collapsed and buried people,” he told AFP. Gregoire Mvongo, governor of the eastern Cameroonian region, said they were working in close collaboration with Central African colleagues to deal with the aftermath of the tragedy.

In June, a similar collapse killed several dozen at the Be-Mbari gold mining site, also on the Cameroon border. In mid-March, a landslide killed seven people at a mine in the village of Ngourroum, also in the west of the Central African Republic.

Another 20 were killed in February in Gordi, in the northeast. The latest incident adds to a series of deadly accidents at informal mining sites in the country.

Artisanal miners often work in unstable conditions with limited safety measures. Underground tunnels and open pits in areas of weak ground contribute to the risk of sudden collapses.

The proximity of the Zamboye site to the Cameroon border means the tragedy has affected nationals of both countries. Cross-border coordination is under way for the response.

Search and rescue efforts continued as officials worked to establish a clearer casualty figure. Hospitals in Baboua received the injured while recovery of those still missing proceeded at the site.

Illegal gold mining remains widespread in parts of the Central African Republic. The repeated accidents highlight the dangers faced by those working outside formal regulatory oversight.

Hundreds of miners were present at the open-pit site when the ground gave way. The scale of the collapse made immediate rescue difficult, with large volumes of earth and debris covering the working areas.

Local authorities in Baboua have been coordinating the response with limited resources. The arrival of additional support from both Central African and Cameroonian sides is expected to assist ongoing recovery efforts.

The public prosecutor’s decision to open a judicial inquiry indicates that the circumstances of the collapse will be formally examined. Questions around the safety of the tunnels and the organisation of the informal site are likely to form part of that process.

Previous accidents in the same border region have drawn attention to the risks of unregulated mining. Despite those earlier incidents, activity at sites such as Zamboye has continued.

The human cost of the latest collapse is already high, with the death toll standing at around 100 and many more injured. Further updates on the final number of casualties are expected as search operations progress.