Fighting among miners: around 100 dead after violence erupted in a gold mine in Chad

Around 100 people are said to have been killed and at least 40 others injured in an outbreak of violence among miners in Chad, central Africa.

In the past few days, there have been fights among miners in a mine in the Kouri Bougoudi district in the north of the country, Chadian Defense Minister General Daoud Yaya Brahim told the German Press Agency on Monday.

Brahim said many of the dead were from neighboring Sudan.

Details initially remained unclear.

An army unit stationed nearby was dispatched, Brahim said.

Reports of gold deposits in the district bordering Libya have drawn inflows of people from Chad, Libya, Niger, Mauritania, Morocco and Sudan in recent years.

The mine will be suspended, Brahim said.

Already in 2018, the government tried to shut down illegal gold mines.

The oil-rich Chad with its approximately 16 million inhabitants is one of the poorest countries in the world.