Sudan gold mine collapse kills 11, injures 30; search under way for trapped miners

At least 11 miners were killed and 30 others were injured after a gold mine shaft collapsed in northeastern Sudan on Sunday (Sep 20), according to a state official. A search operation is underway to rescue people trapped under the debris. The collapse is the second such incident at an informal gold mine in Sudan within a week. The latest collapse took place in Oni, a remote area in the northeastern Red Sea state.

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In a statement, Abdalhay Kharif Abakar, who worked in the area, said that the collapse began on Saturday night. An official from the state-owned Sudanese Mineral Resources Company said that 11 bodies had been recovered by Sunday and 30 people had been rescued. The search for missing miners was still under way, the official said. In a statement, the company expressed condolences over the loss of life in the mine collapse, but did not give details of the casualties. Deadly mine collapses are not uncommon in Sudan, a gold-producing country where safety standards are not widely followed and country has many informal mines.

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Last Sunday, at least 82 people were killed when a series of mine shafts collapsed at another gold mine in western Sudan, in an area controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Sudan plunged into full-scale war in April 2023 after fighting broke out 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.