Landslide at DR Congo coltan mine kills more than 200, including children
More than 200 people were killed on Tuesday in a landslide triggered by heavy rains at the Rubaya coltan mine in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the country's mining ministry said late Wednesday.
The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reported more than 200 deaths, including those of around 70 children, in a statement released on Wednesday evening by the Ministry of Mines.
The landslide occurred on Tuesday afternoon, according to witnesses.
“The provisional death toll stands at more than 200 Congolese citizens, including approximately 70 child miners, and numerous injured who have been evacuated to medical facilities in Goma,” the statement read.
These figures could not be confirmed with independent sources.
The mine is in a remote region, approximately 70 kilometres west of Goma, the capital of the troubled North Kivu province in eastern DRC, to which humanitarian organisations do not have access and where there are no large-scale health facilities.
Telecommunications are regularly cut off.
Rebel control
A senior figure from the AFC/M23 rebel group, which controls the mine, had earlier told Reuters that only five or six people had been killed.
Since its resurgence in late 2021, the anti-government group M23 – with the support of Kigali and the Rwandan army – has seized vast swathes of territory in eastern DRC, a region rich in natural resources and ravaged by conflict for three decades.
The Rubaya mine has been under the control of AFC/M23 since 2024, and DRC authorities have not been present since then.
“The damaged site is one of those where continued operation had been discouraged pending the securing of the area and the implementation of protective measures for miners. The incident is due to the heavy rains of the last few days,” according to a second senior AFC/M23 figure.
The mine was recently added to a shortlist of mining assets being offered by the DRC’s government to the United States under a minerals cooperation framework.
Precarious conditions
Rubaya produces between 15 and 30 percent of the world’s coltan, a strategic mineral for the electronics industry.
Coltan is processed into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal that is in high demand for makers of mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines.
It is widely mined in the DRC, which is estimated to hold at least 60 percent of the world’s reserves.
Thousands of miners work daily in the Rubaya mines, in precarious conditions and without safety measures, most often equipped with only shovels and a pair of rubber boots.
The landslide came a month after another disaster at the site at the end of January which killed “several” people according to an M23 official, but more than 200 according to the authorities in Kinshasa.
In recent days, fighting had intensified near the mining site, in a region where government forces have conducted attacks against the rebel group, including drone strikes.
