Deadly gold mine collapse in Sudan kills at least 10
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Raven Ruma
- . March 31, 2023
- . Update: April 1, 2023 7:28 pm
A minimum of 10 workers were killed Thursday after a gold mine collapsed near the Egyptian border, in Sudan’s Northern State, a state news agency reported. The miners died after the roof of Jabal Ahmar mine, about 70 km from the city of Halfa, cracked and collapsed, Sudan’s SUNA news said, blaming the heavy machinery in the surrounding area.
“The miners were working … inside the mine wells at the lower end of the site,” SUNA reported. The death toll is expected to rise as a number of people are still missing. Several workers are feared to be trapped beneath the mine’s groundwater, the state agency cited a security source as saying.
While the Wadi Halfa Hospital has received 10 bodies, mostly of young men, at least three others have sustained injuries in the collapse. Al Baqir Ahmed Ali, governor of the Northern State, directed the local security committee to put in efforts and take every necessary measure to save the workers, SUNA reported.
The news agency further cited the governor as contacting the “executive director of Halfa and the members of the local committee, through which he was briefed on the measures taken to mitigate the severity of the accident and to rescue and assist the injured.”
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The noble metal is the most valuable export of Sudan, with mining counted among its biggest industries. Local miners at Jabal Al Ahmar have often staged protests against the entry of mining companies, accusing them of polluting the land as well as plundering gold.
Since the separation of South Sudan from Sudan in 2011, taking the majority of the country’s oil revenue with it, independent gold mining has been on the rise. According to the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company, production in the country crossed 18 tonnes last year, breaking the record for the highest annual output established in 2019.
Collapses aren’t uncommon in Sudan’s booming gold mining sector, where maintenance and safety standards are substantially poor. Just a couple of years back, the collapse of a defunct gold mine in the West Kordofan province killed 31 people.
