Eleven killed in Sudan gold mine collapse as civil battle rages
Seven staff had been injured within the collapse, which occurred in an space managed by the Sudanese Armed Forces.
The partial collapse of a standard gold mine in Sudan’s northeast has killed 11 miners and wounded seven others, based on the state mining firm, as a brutal civil battle between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Speedy Help Forces (RSF) is in its third 12 months.
For the reason that battle erupted in April 2023, either side’ battle chests have been largely funded by Sudan’s gold business.
In an announcement launched on Sunday, the Sudanese Mineral Assets Firm (SMRC) mentioned that the collapse occurred in an “artisanal shaft within the Kirsh al-Fil mine” over the weekend within the distant desert space of Howeid, situated between the SAF-controlled cities of Atbara and Haiya in Sudan’s northeastern Crimson Sea state.
One other seven staff had been injured and transferred to a hospital, the SMRC mentioned.
The corporate added that it had beforehand suspended work within the mine and “warned in opposition to its persevering with exercise as a result of its posing nice threat to life”.
In keeping with official and NGO sources, almost all the gold commerce is funnelled via the United Arab Emirates, which has been accused of arming the RSF. The UAE denies it does so.
The battle has shattered Sudan’s already fragile economic system. The military-backed authorities, however, introduced report gold manufacturing of 64 tonnes in 2024.
Africa’s third-largest nation is without doubt one of the continent’s high gold producers, however artisanal and small-scale gold mining accounts for almost all of gold extracted.
In distinction to bigger industrial services, these mines lack security measures and use hazardous chemical substances that always trigger widespread illnesses in close by areas.
Mining collapses are additionally widespread. Comparable incidents in recent times embrace a 2023 collapse that killed 14 miners and one other in 2021 that claimed 38 lives.
Earlier than the battle, which has pushed 25 million folks into dire meals insecurity, artisanal mining employed greater than two million folks, based on mining business sources and specialists.
As we speak, based on these sources, a lot of the gold produced by either side is smuggled to Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, earlier than reaching the UAE, the world’s second-largest gold exporter.
Tens of hundreds of individuals have been killed in Sudan, the place greater than 13 million persons are presently displaced on the planet’s largest displacement disaster.
Greater than 4 million have fled throughout borders.
Presently, the SAF dominates the north and east of the nation – together with the smallest state by space, however most populous, Khartoum – together with some central areas. The RSF, in the meantime, holds most of western Sudan, together with most of Darfur.
