Eleven killed in Sudan gold mine collapse as civil war rages

Seven workers were injured successful the collapse, which occurred successful an country controlled by the Sudanese Armed Forces.

The partial illness of a accepted golden excavation successful Sudan’s northeast has killed 11 miners and wounded 7 others, according to the authorities mining company, arsenic a brutal civilian warfare betwixt the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is successful its 3rd year.

Since the warfare erupted successful April 2023, some sides’ warfare chests person been mostly funded by Sudan’s golden industry.

In a connection released connected Sunday, the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company (SMRC) said that the illness occurred successful an “artisanal shaft successful the Kirsh al-Fil mine” implicit the play successful the distant godforsaken country of Howeid, located betwixt the SAF-controlled cities of Atbara and Haiya successful Sudan’s northeastern Red Sea state.

Another 7 workers were injured and transferred to a hospital, the SMRC said.

The institution added that it had antecedently suspended enactment successful the excavation and “warned against its continuing enactment owed to its posing large hazard to life”.

According to authoritative and NGO sources, astir each of the golden commercialized is funnelled done the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of arming the RSF. The UAE denies it does so.

The warfare has shattered Sudan’s already fragile economy. The army-backed government, nevertheless, announced grounds golden accumulation of 64 tonnes successful 2024.

Africa’s third-largest state is 1 of the continent’s apical golden producers, but artisanal and small-scale golden mining accounts for the bulk of golden extracted.

In opposition to larger concern facilities, these mines deficiency information measures and usage hazardous chemicals that often origin wide diseases successful adjacent areas.

Mining collapses are besides common. Similar incidents successful caller years see a 2023 illness that killed 14 miners and different successful 2021 that claimed 38 lives.

Before the war, which has pushed 25 cardinal radical into dire nutrient insecurity, artisanal mining employed much than 2 cardinal people, according to mining manufacture sources and experts.

Today, according to those sources, overmuch of the golden produced by some sides is smuggled to Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, earlier reaching the UAE, the world’s second-largest golden exporter.

Tens of thousands of radical person been killed successful Sudan, wherever much than 13 cardinal radical are presently displaced successful the world’s largest displacement crisis.

More than 4 cardinal person fled crossed borders.

Currently, the SAF dominates the northbound and eastbound of the country – including the smallest authorities by area, but astir populous, Khartoum – on with immoderate cardinal areas. The RSF, meanwhile, holds astir of occidental Sudan, including astir of Darfur.