DRC: Hope to find survivors fades after Kamituga mine tragedy

Hundreds of people gathered at one of the entrances to an artisanal mine in Kamituga, South Kivu, where dozens of diggers perished on September 11, 2020. STRINGER / AFP

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The search for the bodies continues in Kamituga, in South Kivu, a town of around 260,000 inhabitants located 160 km west of Bukavu, where a mining tragedy occurred on Friday 11 September.

About fifty diggers disappeared in three wells flooded by rainwater.

The mourning decreed by the mayor of the city continues this Sunday.

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Equipped with hoes, spades, shovels, pickaxes and other paltry means, the inhabitants of Kamituga dig in this mining square called " 

 ", located south of the city center.

They try to find any survivors, or the bodies of the victims, blocked in these tunnels about 45 m deep, with many compartments.

The chances of finding the survivors are diminishing, under the desperate eyes of family members.

Until late at night from Saturday to Sunday, they dug up to twenty meters, without success.

Young diggers

According to local civil society, most of them are young artisanal diggers aged 20 to 35, who were surprised by clods of sand and gravel, washed away by runoff, following the heavy rains that fell on the city.

Among them, the person in charge of one of the tunnels, Kubota Luganda, commonly known as the “CEO”, around 40 years old and well known in the community, disappeared with his two little brothers while supervising the work.

Pipeline problem

The mayor of Kamituga Alexandre Bundja Mupila deplored a problem with pipelines at the base of the multiple damage, especially in the tunnels abandoned by the former Kivu mining company, SOMINKI.

In Bukavu, the KASUKU association, which brings together the inhabitants of Kamituga, says it is shocked, and points to the state services working in the mining sector.

The governor of South Kivu Theo Ngwabidje for his part promises the opening of an investigation to establish the responsibilities.

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