A gold mine shaft collapsed in northeastern Sudan, killing at least 11 miners and injuring 30, a state official said Sunday. A search continued for the missing under the debris.
The incident occurred in Oni, a remote area in the northeastern Red Sea state, and began Saturday night. An official from the state-owned Sudanese Mineral Resources Co. stated that 11 bodies had been recovered by Sunday and 30 people were rescued. The official, who was not authorized to speak to the media, spoke on condition of anonymity.
This is the second collapse of an informal gold mine in Sudan in just over a week. Last Sunday, at least 82 people were killed when a series of mine shafts in another gold mine collapsed in the country's west. That mine was in an area controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which have been engaged in conflict with the Sudanese military for over three years.
Deadly mine collapses are not uncommon in Sudan, a gold-producing country, where safety standards are often not widely applied. The country has been embroiled in a war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between the RSF and the Sudanese military. This conflict has resulted in widespread displacement and exacerbated food insecurity, pushing parts of the country toward famine.
According to the monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, the war has killed at least 59,000 people, though aid organizations suggest this figure is likely an undercount. Experts commissioned by the United Nations have reported that significant quantities of gold are smuggled out of Sudan to finance the RSF, which controls gold-producing regions in the Darfur and Kordofan areas.