Two gold mine collapses kill nearly 100 in Sudan
A collapse at the Awny mining area near the Egyptian border killed at least 10 people, days after the al-Zaraa disaster in West Kordofan left at least 82 dead.
At least 10 miners were killed and 21 injured when shafts collapsed at the Awny mining area in northern Sudan near the Egyptian border, two survivors told the AFP news agency on Sunday. By Sunday morning, 10 bodies had been recovered and 21 injured workers pulled from the rubble, while the miners themselves carried on the search for others believed trapped, with little equipment. The exact number of people still underground is unclear.
The disaster came days after another collapse at the al-Zaraa mine near en-Nahud in West Kordofan State, where a local administrator told AFP that 82 bodies had been recovered and 50 people injured, with an unknown number still trapped under the rubble.
Together, the two accidents have killed nearly 100 people in recent days in the scramble for gold.
Sudan is one of Africa’s top gold producers, recording 70 tonnes of production last year, according to the Sudanese government. Since fighting broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, gold has remained one of the country’s most valuable sources of income — and most of it is dug out of informal, unregulated artisanal mines.
“This disaster is yet another example of the deadly hazards facing those working in Sudan’s gold mines,” said Joseph Tucker, senior analyst on the Horn of Africa at the International Crisis Group. Most of the mines, he said, “are informal, artisanal mines in remote areas that are unregulated and lack modern mining technology, adequate infrastructure, and specialised safety equipment.”
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