Sudan gold mine collapse kills at least 82 in West Kordofan

At least 82 people were killed when informal gold shafts collapsed at the al-Zara mine in Sudan’s West Kordofan state. A source in the Rapid Support Forces, which controls the area, told AFP that 50 others were wounded and that an unknown number remain under the sand. Suleiman Abu Hmeida of the Emergency Response Rooms network and a local official both put recovered bodies at 82 by the afternoon of 16 September.

The Kordofan Observatory, a monitoring group, said more than 70 artisanal miners were dead or missing after adjoining shafts failed at the site in the Fouja area, northwest of al-Nuhud. Reuters, citing three local sources the same day, first reported at least 60 dead. The spread in the numbers reflects a remote pit with no official roll and a rescue that is being run by the miners themselves.

Accounts of the first collapse also differ by a day or two. Reuters’ sources described a Sunday failure. Survivors who spoke to AFP and the Observatory described shafts giving way on Tuesday, with a survivor walking out on Tuesday and saying others were still alive below. What the witnesses agree on is the mechanics. The pits were cut close together in loose ground. When one face went, it pulled the next one with it.

A rescue with one forklift

Khair al-Sayyed Jabara told AFP he and other miners dug through the night with the same tools they use to take gold. “We don’t know how many more are still inside,” he said. Al Amin Suleiman, who had been working at the rim, said the packed layout was the reason the death count climbed. “If one collapses, it brings down all the ones next to it.” He doubted that those still underground were alive.

No specialised rescue unit had reached the mine by 16 September. The Observatory said sandy ground was defeating local attempts. A local official told the Associated Press that only one privately owned forklift was available. The RSF source said the work was being done with “rudimentary methods.”

West Kordofan is RSF territory in a war that is more than three years old. Gold from informal pits is one of the revenue streams that keep armed groups paid. That fact cuts two ways. It explains why so many men were underground in an unregulated hole. It also explains why a professional mine-rescue team, if one exists in the country at all, is not the first thing a front-line administration sends.

The industry behind the pit

Sudan is among Africa’s largest gold producers. Most of that metal does not come from licensed industrial mines. It comes from artisanal sites like al-Zara and then moves through informal and smuggling routes. Safety rules, shoring, ventilation and a counted workforce are rare. Collapses in rainy months are a recurring file, not a one-off accident.

A single pit failure of this size does not move the world gold price. Licensed export volumes are not sitting in Fouja. The political weight is local and fiscal. Gold pays fighters. A dead pit in RSF ground is a labour disaster and a cash-flow event for whoever taxed the output.

The Observatory asked for urgent help on the basis that some miners might still be alive. Abu Hmeida said dozens remained unaccounted for after 82 bodies had been pulled out. Until heavier equipment arrives, that gap between recovered and missing is the only census the site has.

The verifiable facts as of 16 September are these. An informal mine near al-Nuhud failed in a chain of shafts. At least 82 people are dead. About 50 are wounded. Residents are digging by hand. The force that holds the state has not produced a rescue team that can change that method.