At least 67 people have been killed after a collapse at an informal gold mine near al-Nuhud town in Sudan's West Kordofan, where residents have been trying to reach miners trapped beneath rubble.
The collapse at the al-Zaraa mine happened on Tuesday. A Sudan Doctors Network count put the death toll at at least 67, while a Rapid Support Forces source said at least 82 people had been killed and another 50 wounded. The final toll remains unclear as search efforts continue.
The Kordofan Observatory monitoring group reported the incident on Wednesday and said at least 70 miners had been killed or were missing. Al-Amin Suliman, a surviving miner, said 60 bodies had been recovered by Wednesday morning.
The collapse spread through a series of adjoining mining shafts. The shafts had been dug so closely together that the failure of one pulled down those beside it, burying dozens of artisanal miners.
The mine stretches over 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) and lies in loose, sandy soil. It is an informal operation employing unregulated workers and lacked basic safety and protective measures.
No specialised rescue teams had joined the operation. Residents using rudimentary tools were struggling to pull survivors from the collapsed soil and rubble, while machinery to clear the site was unavailable.
Sudan Doctors Network said the search was continuing and warned that the casualty figure could rise. The group condemned the “negligence” that it said had placed miners' lives at serious risk.
The collapse underlines the risks at informal mining sites operating without basic protective measures or rescue resources. Sudan has suffered fatal mine collapses before. A collapse killed 14 miners in 2023, while another claimed 38 lives in 2021.
West Kordofan is controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, known as the RSF. The group has been fighting Sudan's army since April 2023, and smuggled gold has been a key source of revenue for the RSF.
The wider war has killed at least 59,000 people, according to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data. At al-Zaraa, the number of people still trapped and the cause of the structural failure remain unknown.
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