Miners work at a coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Congo, in Might 2025.
Moses Sawasawa/AP
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Moses Sawasawa/AP
GOMA, Congo — A landslide earlier this week collapsed a number of mines at a significant coltan mining website in japanese Congo, leaving a minimum of 200 folks useless, insurgent authorities stated Saturday.
The collapse came about Wednesday on the Rubaya mines, that are managed by the M23 rebels, Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, the spokesperson of the rebel-appointed governor of North-Kivu province informed The Related Press. He stated the landslide was attributable to heavy rains.
“For now, there are greater than 200 useless, a few of whom are nonetheless within the mud and haven’t but been recovered,” Muyisa stated. He added that a number of others have been injured and brought to 3 well being services within the city of Rubaya, whereas ambulances have been anticipated to switch the wounded Saturday to Goma, the closest metropolis round 30 miles away.
The rebel-appointed governor of North Kivu has briefly halted artisanal mining on the location and ordered the relocation of residents who had constructed shelters close to the mine, Muyisa stated.
Congo’s authorities in an announcement on X expressed solidarity with the victims’ households and accused the rebels of illegally and unsafely exploiting the area’s pure assets.
A former miner on the website informed The Related Press there have been repeated landslides as a result of the tunnels are dug by hand, poorly constructed, and left with out upkeep.
“Folks dig all over the place, with out management or security measures. In a single pit, there could be as many as 500 miners, and since the tunnels run parallel, one collapse can have an effect on many pits directly,” Clovis Mafare stated.
Rubaya lies within the coronary heart of japanese Congo, a mineral-rich a part of the Central African nation which for many years has been ripped aside by violence from authorities forces and completely different armed teams, together with the Rwanda-backed M23, whose latest resurgence has escalated the battle, worsening an already acute humanitarian disaster.
Congo is a significant provider of coltan, a black metallic ore that incorporates the uncommon steel tantalum, a key part within the manufacturing of smartphones, computer systems and plane engines.
The nation produced about 40 % of the world’s coltan in 2023, in response to the U.S. Geological Survey, with Australia, Canada and Brazil being different massive suppliers. Over 15% of the world’s provide of tantalum from Rubaya’s mines.
In Might 2024, M23 seized the city and took management of its mines. In response to a U.N. report, since seizing Rubaya, the rebels have imposed taxes on the commerce and transport of coltan, producing a minimum of $800,000 a month.
Japanese Congo has been out and in of disaster for many years. Varied conflicts have created one of many world’s largest humanitarian crises with greater than 7 million folks displaced, together with greater than 300,000 who’ve fled their houses since December.
Regardless of the signing of a deal between the Congolese and Rwandan governments brokered by the U.S. and ongoing negotiations between rebels and Congo, combating continues on a number of fronts in japanese Congo, persevering with to assert quite a few civilian and army casualties.
The deal between Congo and Rwanda additionally opens up entry to important minerals for the U.S. authorities and American corporations.
