A devastating landslide at an illegal gold mine in the western region of the Central African Republic has claimed dozens of lives, with local accounts suggesting the death toll could reach as high as 100. Emergency crews continue to search through the debris for survivors while officials attempt to confirm the total casualties.
The collapse occurred around midday on Tuesday at the Zamboye gold mine, located near the border with Cameroon, when a section of the open-pit site caved in and swept over workers.
Local government officials initial estimates suggest at least 40 individuals lost their lives, though other regional sources indicate the total casualties could be closer to 100. Government authorities noted that an exact figure is difficult to verify as search operations remain active.
“It is difficult for us to establish a formal toll at this stage,” Baboua local official Laurent Ngon Baba told AFP.
Cedric Mbango, a miner at the site, recounted the scene as catastrophic, adding that numerous workers were buried under the earth as rescue efforts began.
The site at Zamboye regularly draws hundreds of laborers, and footage shared across social media platforms captured the moment a large portion of the pit slope destabilized, burying miners in its wake.
Unregulated operations continue to trigger frequent lethal incidents throughout the resource-abundant nation. The Zamboye tragedy marks the latest in a series of similar occurrences, following a collapse at the Be-Mbari gold site near the Cameroonian border in June that claimed dozens of lives, a landslide at Ngourroum in March that left seven dead, and a February disaster in Gordi that killed 20 miners.
Search teams remain deployed at the collapse site to locate trapped workers, with officials expecting to provide an updated assessment once recovery teams clear more ground.
