DRC: several dead in an artisanal mine following torrential rains
Artisanal diggers at a cassiterite mining site near Numbi in eastern DRC.
(Illustrative photo) GRIFF TAPPER / AFP
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a serious accident occurred on Friday September 11 in an artisanal mine in Kamituga, about 160 kilometers southwest of Bukavu, in the province of South Kivu.
There could be 20 to 50 victims, depending on the sources.
This new tragedy arose following torrential rains that hit the region, according to the local administration.
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The accident occurred around 4 p.m. local time when rainwater overflowed a river near a gold mine, according to the mayor of Kamituga.
These waters then rushed into the extraction shafts of this mine, before reaching the galleries where they surprised dozens of artisanal miners, known under the name of “diggers”, who were there.
“
There was no collapse.
The problem is the waters.
The rain fell.
The diggers drowned
”, indicates Alexandre Bundya Mpila.
The governor of the province of South Kivu as well as civil society estimated that there were, at that time, about fifty miners inside the mine.
The mayor of Kamituga, who was there this Saturday, September 12, speaks about twenty possible victims: "
We are starting to extract the water in order to try and succeed in extracting the bodies
," he explains. .
There is an estimate of around 20 people who have died.
I have seen all these families who mourn their brothers
”.
Rescue teams, made up of other miners equipped with motor pumps to try to extract water from this mine, have been at work since Friday evening, even if the conditions in which they operate are very difficult.
"
We hope to get to the bottom of the mine this evening,
" Bundya Mpila explained on Saturday.
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