More than 200 people died on Tuesday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's mines ministry said on Wednesday evening. The rebels in charge of the site have not confirmed.
The Congolese government has reported more than 200 deaths in the landslide at the Rubaya mining site, according to a statement released on Wednesday evening by the DRC Ministry of Mines.
The mines ministry also said that around 70 children were among the victims.
The landslide occurred there Tuesday afternoon, according to witnesses.
Disputed figures
"The provisional death toll stands at more than 200 Congolese citizens, including approximately 70 child miners, and numerous injured who have been evacuated to medical facilities in Goma," to the statement sent to news agencies.
These figures could not be confirmed by AFP or Reuters with independent sources in this remote region, where neither humanitarian organisations nor large-scale health facilities have access and where telecommunications are regularly cut off.
A senior official from the AFC/M23 rebel group, which controls the mine, had told Reuters earlier that only five or six died in the accident.
"The damaged site is one of those where continued operation had been discouraged pending the securing of the area and the implementation of protective measures for miners. The incident is due to the heavy rains of the last few days," another senior AFC/M23 official said.
The site has been under the control of the AFC/M23 rebel group since 2024, and was recently added to a shortlist of mining assets being offered by the Congolese government to the United States under a minerals cooperation framework.
So, Congolese authorities have not been present on the site since 2024.
The site is located approximately 70 kilometers west of Goma, the capital of the troubled North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and covers several dozen square kilometers.
Goma's residents reflect on life a year after DR Congo city fell to M23 rebels
Since its resurgence in late 2021, the anti-government group M23 (March 23 Movement), with the support of Kigali and the Rwandan army, has seized vast swathes of territory in eastern DRC, a region rich in natural resources and ravaged by conflict for three decades.
Conflict minerals
The mining town of Rubaya produces between 15 and 30 percent of the world's coltan production—a strategic mineral for the electronics industry.
Spotlight on Africa: the race for Africa's critical minerals
Coltan is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand by makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines.
It is widely mined in the DRC, which is estimated to hold at least 60 percent of the world's reserves.
Thousands of artisanal miners work daily in the Rubaya mines, in precarious conditions and without safety measures, most often equipped with only shovels and a pair of rubber boots.
The latest incident came a month after another disaster at the site in late January / early February, which killed at least several people according to an M23 officia, but more than 200 people according to the authorities in Kinshasa.
In recent days, fighting had intensified near the mining site, in this area where government forces have conducted attacks against the rebel group, including drone strikes.
(with newswires)
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