DR Congo Mine Landslide Leaves Over 100 Dead
The collapse struck the Rubaya mining area in North Kivu province following torrential rainfall, according to news portal Actuality, which cited on-the-ground witnesses. The dead were predominantly artisanal miners, though food vendors and small-scale traders working the site also perished in the disaster.
A survivor who spoke to local media described the terrifying speed of the collapse — a shaft began giving way slowly, then within seconds swallowed a significant number of people whole. Recovery crews are now racing against time, conducting excavations under punishing conditions with little more than rudimentary tools at their disposal.
The catastrophe lands barely a month after a separate disaster at the very same site claimed over 400 lives in January, according to local media reports — a staggering death toll that drew sharp condemnation from the Congolese government over what it described as the unchecked illegal extraction of minerals by rebel forces.
Provincial authorities in North Kivu have yet to issue any official statement on the latest incident, which unfolded approximately 70 kilometers west of the provincial capital Goma.
The Rubaya mining zone sits atop a wealth of valuable minerals — coltan, cassiterite, gold, and tourmaline — and has remained under the grip of M23 rebels since 2024. Miners there routinely work without protective equipment, and no engineering oversight exists to assess ground stability or alert workers to imminent structural threats, local media noted.
The bloodshed comes despite an Angola-brokered ceasefire that officially took effect February 18, which has done little to stem the violence — clashes in North Kivu have in fact intensified since its declaration, uprooting thousands of civilians from their homes across the province.
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