At least 100 people have been killed after a landslide tore through an illegal gold mine in the Central African Republic near the border with Cameroon, according to local sources cited by AFP.
Rescue teams were continuing to search the Zamboye mining site on Tuesday, roughly 50 kilometres from the town of Baboua, where the collapse occurred that afternoon.
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Several local sources put the death toll at about 100, with many more people injured. The disaster is the latest in a series of deadly accidents at informal mines across the mineral-rich country.
“At this stage it’s difficult for us to establish a formal toll,” Baboua elected official Laurent Ngon Baba told AFP.
Survivors were transported to a hospital in Baboua as rescuers pressed on with the search for those still missing.
The Baboua public prosecutor said the collapse appeared to have followed “the collapse of several underground tunnels in which miners were operating”. A judicial inquiry has been opened, according to a statement.
Such landslides are frequent at illegal mining sites operating beyond state oversight in the Central African Republic.
Videos shared on social media showed part of the vast open-pit site giving way, sending earth into areas where hundreds of artisanal miners were working and burying people in its path.
Cedric Mbango, who was working at the mine, called the incident “catastrophic”.
“The ground completely collapsed and buried people,” he told AFP.
Gregoire Mvongo, governor of Cameroon’s eastern region, said on public broadcaster CRTV radio that authorities were “working in close collaboration with our Central African colleagues to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy”.
The collapse follows another deadly accident in June, when several dozen people were killed at the Be-Mbari gold mining site, also near the Cameroon border.
In mid-March, seven people died in a landslide at a mine in Ngourroum village in western Central African Republic.
Another 20 people were killed in February at a mine in Gordi, in the country’s northeast.
