Éboulement sur un site minier en RDC: Kinshasa dit craindre "au moins 200 morts"
The Rubaya mines, where artisanal miners work primarily in precarious conditions, produce between 15 and 30% of the world's coltan. Since April 2024, they have been under the control of the anti-government armed group M23, supported by Rwanda.
Eastern DRC is believed to hold at least 60% of the world's reserves of this mineral, from which tantalum, essential for the manufacture of modern electronic equipment, is derived.
The region has been ravaged by conflict for thirty years, and has seen a resurgence of violence since 2021 with the resurgence of the armed group M23 which, supported by Kigali and its army, seized the major cities of Goma and Bukavu in January and February 2025.
The Rubaya site, which extends over several tens of square kilometers, is located about 70 kilometers west of the large city of Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu.
According to still very limited information obtained by AFP, a section of the hillside in the vast, rugged area collapsed on Wednesday afternoon. Another landslide occurred on Thursday morning.
The governor of North Kivu province appointed by the M23, Eraston Bahati Musanga, who visited the area on Friday, told AFP that there were "at least 200 dead", although this figure could not be confirmed by independent sources.
This M23 official had also stated that bodies had been pulled from the rubble, without however giving a number.
In this remote area of the vast Central African country, the telephone network has been down for several days. The Congolese administration and civil society organizations fled the area upon the arrival of the M23.
Information is arriving "in dribs and drabs via motorcyclists circulating" in the region, preventing at this stage an exact assessment from being established, explained a humanitarian source contacted by AFP.
According to UN experts, the M23 has established in Rubaya "an administration similar to that of a state", notably by creating a "ministry in charge of mineral exploitation" which issues "permits to diggers and economic operators".
The armed group's taxation of mining activities brings in several hundred thousand dollars a month, thanks to a tax levied on the production and trade of coltan, according to UN experts.
Kinshasa on Sunday called on "the international community to fully grasp the magnitude of this tragedy", which, according to the Congolese government, is a consequence of "an armed occupation and an organized system of looting" by the M23 and Rwanda.
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