A devastating mine collapse at a small-scale artisanal gold mining site in western Central African Republic (CAR), just kilometers from the country’s border with Cameroon, has left a minimum of 30 miners dead, with rescue operations continuing Wednesday as local authorities warn the final death toll could climb significantly higher.
The structural failure occurred on Tuesday near the village of Zamboye, a small settlement located a short distance from Garoua-Boulai, a major border city in Cameroon. Souleymane Bi, deputy mayor of Nana-Mambere, the CAR prefecture that administers the area, confirmed that rescuers recovered dozens of bodies in the immediate hours following the collapse, while injured miners have been transferred to local medical facilities for treatment.
Describing the scene as catastrophic, Bi issued an urgent plea for outside assistance: “This is a terrible tragedy. We are calling on international aid organizations and people of goodwill to step forward and provide support to the affected community.” Local officials currently estimate the death toll could reach as high as 40, though the exact number of people killed remains unconfirmed, as multiple victims are still believed trapped under fallen debris.
One surviving miner who witnessed the disaster spoke to local media, describing the sudden and catastrophic nature of the collapse: “The entire ground caved in completely, burying dozens of people alive. There are still people trapped under the rubble, and rescue teams are working nonstop to reach them.”
The CAR national government issued a public statement extending its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased, affirming that it is “working urgently to deliver aid and support to all those affected by this terrible incident.”
Fatal mine collapses are a persistent, deadly crisis in the Central African Republic, where thousands of workers are employed in unregulated, often informal small-scale mining operations that operate entirely outside of government oversight. These sites lack even basic safety infrastructure and protective measures, creating extremely hazardous working conditions that lead to repeated deadly accidents year after year.
This latest collapse marks the fourth major fatal mining disaster in CAR in 2024 alone. Back in June, a collapse at the Be-Mbari gold mine, another small-scale site located along the CAR-Cameroon border, killed dozens of workers. In March, a landslide at an artisanal mine near the village of Ngourroum in western CAR killed seven miners, and just one month prior in February, approximately 20 miners lost their lives in a mining accident in Gordi, a remote mining area in the country’s northeastern region.