The explosion of a stockpile of dynamite on Monday, February 21, at the Gomgombiro gold panning site killed dozens of people in the southwestern region of Burkina Faso.
"We have 55 bodies on the site," said the High Commissioner of the Poni province Antoine Marie Sylvanus Doamba, who went to the scene of the tragedy.
A hospital source also reported 55 dead and said they had identified at least 55 injured, including women and children.
"The balance sheet could increase since the wounded are still in critical condition and their vital prognosis is seriously engaged," she said.
Burkina Faso's national television, for its part, announced a provisional death toll of 59.
“The victims were killed by an explosion caused by a fire in a storage area for contraband dynamite sticks” which also serves as a “market office on the gold panning site”, explained a resident of Gomgombiro.
He described "horror scenes", uprooted or charred trees and a "wide crater" at the scene of the tragedy.
According to a judicial source, the prosecutor of Faso went to the scene for the usual findings, and "an investigation has been opened to determine the circumstances" of the tragedy.
Gold, Burkina Faso's leading export product
On Friday, two people were killed in a landslide at an artisanal gold site in the southern village of Kollo.
Despite the ban on gold panning, which regularly causes deadly landslides, the authorities are struggling to control the uncontrolled exploitation of gold, carried out by 1.2 million people, according to official figures.
Although declining, gold production has become in a dozen years the first export product of Burkina Faso, whose main export product was previously cotton.
With AFP
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