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Sudan gold mine collapse kills at least 82 in West Kordofan, dozens still missing
Another 22 bodies were found Wednesday, according to a local administrator within the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which controls West Kordofan and has been locked in a war with the country's military since 2023.
A gold mine collapse in Sudan’s West Kordofan state has killed at least 82 people and injured dozens, while many others are said to remain trapped under sand and rubble, according to a local administrator.
Survivors said the collapse happened at the al-Zara gold mine, in Nuhud, a town in West Kordofan province, which is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) that have been fighting against the Sudanese military for over three years.
The official said the collapse began on Sunday in one of the mine shafts and spread to the other interconnected shafts. He said only one privately owned forklift is available for the rescue efforts, complicating the search for survivors.
The mine is located in West Kordofan, a region controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been fighting Sudan’s military since 2023.
Two survivors described an all-night effort to search for bodies and survivors using the same rudimentary equipment employed for gold extraction. One miner, Khair al-Sayyed Jabara, said heavy machinery was needed to remove the rock and soil.
Another miner, Al-Amin Suleiman told AFP that the shafts at the Al-Zaraa mine were located close to one another, meaning the collapse of one could bring down neighbouring shafts. He said some miners had remained trapped underground since Tuesday and expressed doubt that they had survived.
Mine collapses are frequent in Sudan, particularly at unregulated and decommissioned sites where young people work for daily wages. The greater Kordofan region is home to numerous informal mines, many of which are unsecured pits.
According to Sudanese officials and mining industry sources, nearly all of the gold extracted by both sides flows to the United Arab Emirates, which denies widespread reports it arms the RSF.
With much of the country out of work, many young Sudanese have joined a dangerous gold rush, mostly in unregulated mines such as Al-Zaraa in West Kordofan.
"Everyone's working very hard to retrieve the bodies or any survivors, but it's difficult," one of the survivors, Khair al-Sayyed Jabara, told AFP after an all-night rescue operation with fellow miners, using the same rudimentary tools they use to extract gold.
"We need heavy machinery to clear the rock and soil."
Most of Sudan's gold is extracted from artisanal and small-scale mining, which takes place in decommissioned mines or informal zones like Al-Zaraa.
Despite being a major gold producer, deadly mine collapses in Sudan are not uncommon in a country where safety standards are not widely applied. A 2023 collapse killed 14 miners and one in 2021 claimed 38 lives.
The al-Zara gold mine is one of thousands of small-scale and informal mines scattered across Sudan, which has been engulfed in a war that has at times pushed parts of the country into famine.
Large quantities of gold have been smuggled out of the country to finance the paramilitary RSF, which controls gold-producing areas in Darfur and Kordofan regions, according to experts commissioned by the United Nations.
Sudan plunged into an all-out war in April 2023 as fighting erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese military.
The conflict has killed at least 59,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a monitoring group. Aid organisations say the figure is an undercount, and the true number could be many times higher.
The UN has repeatedly warned that both sides are profiting from control over the country's resources and that a "war economy" was sustaining the conflict.
