A landslide at an illegal gold mine in the Central African Republic, near the border with Cameroon, has killed at least 100 people, local sources told on Wednesday.
Search operations were still under way following the accident at the Zamboye mining site, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the town of Baboua, on Tuesday afternoon, reports AFP.
Several local sources said around 100 people had died and many others were injured in the latest of a series of such accidents in the mineral-rich country.
“At this stage it’s difficult for us to establish a formal toll,” Baboua elected official Laurent Ngon Baba told early Wednesday.
At least four of the victims were Cameroonian, the Cameroon Tribune reported.
Survivors were taken to hospital in Baboua, while search operations continued on Wednesday.
The landslide is believed to have been caused by “the collapse of several underground tunnels in which miners were operating”, the Baboua public prosecutor said in a statement, announcing that a judicial inquiry had been opened.
Landslides are common in illegal mining operations outside state control in the Central African Republic.
Video images shared on social media showed part of the ground at the huge open-pit mining site breaking away and burying people in its path. Hundreds of artisanal miners work at the site.
Cedric Mbango, a miner at the site, described the incident as “catastrophic”.
“The ground completely collapsed and buried people,” he said.
Gregoire Mvongo, governor of Cameroon’s eastern region, said on public broadcaster CRTV that they were “working in close collaboration with our Central African colleagues to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy”.
In June, a similar collapse killed several dozen people at the Be-Mbari gold mining site, also on the Cameroon border.
In mid-March, a landslide killed seven people at a mine in the village of Ngourroum, also in the west of the Central African Republic.
Another 20 people were killed in February in Gordi, in the northeast.
