At least 18 people died in the collapse of an artisanal gold mine in southern Niger near the border with Nigeria, the local mayor said on Monday.
“The preliminary death toll is 18 people we buried this morning,” Dan-Issa District Mayor Adamou Gueraou told AFP about Sunday’s disaster.
“There were also seven hospitalized with injuries,” he said, adding that Nigerian nationals were among those injured.
The accident was triggered when artisanal wells collapsed in the Garin-Liman mine on Sunday afternoon, he said.
“Rescue operations are still ongoing, there may still be bodies trapped at the bottom of the pits,” a local source said.
The Garin Liman mines were only discovered a few months ago, but thousands of miners have flocked to the area since then.
Niger’s gold mines have been attracting gold seekers for decades, especially in the western region of Tillaberi, now the scene of deadly jihad attacks, and in the north near the Libyan border.
Breaking news: At least 20 people are reported to have died in a gold mining incident in Niger and dozens of them were trapped pic.twitter.com/MNZf4MLbSp
– Mawunya (@Mawunya_) November 8, 2021
According to the authorities, accidents at these locations are frequent due to the instability of the ground and the miners’ outdated methods.
As part of the government’s efforts to modernize the industry, several artisanal gold mines were closed in 2017.
Since 2004 there has only been one industrial mine in Niger near Samira in the Tillaberi region.
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