Women killed in South Kordofan gold mine collapse

Eight women died and 11 other people sustained injuries when a gold mine collapsed in South Kordofan on Sunday.

Witnesses told Radio Dabanga that a mine east of Mount El Leri collapsed on dozens of women who were working inside. Eight women were killed instantly.

Eleven other people sustained varying degrees of injuries and have been taken to El Leri Hospital.

The deceased are Umelhussein Bashir, Kulla Jibril, Darelnaeem El Faki, El Sayda Ahmed, Souad Hasan, Marya Jaafar, Rania Mohamed and Suraya Abdelrahman.

The injured were Shahrazad Iyad, Haboba El Faki, Saadiya El Faki, Firdous Dood, Sigillat Daoud, Arafa Adam, Hawa Azhari, Jihad Mohamed, Zahra El Sheikh, Nora Hammad and El Bashar El Sheikh.

Mine collapse

On April 18, at least 35 gold miners died at the Wad Nyala Mine in El Radoom locality in South Darfur when a mine shaft collapsed. The fact that miners could only reach the victims and bodies using traditional mining tools such as drills and spades complicated the rescue.

Traditional miners throughout Sudan, including in Northern State and River Nile state, reported recently that the imposition of higher annual fees on machinery and deductions on any gold production and negative effects from the ongoing shortage of fuel and liquidity has affected the gold production.

Traditional mining accounts for about 80 per cent of Sudan’s annual gold production. Recent reports suggest that a large proportion of the gold produced by traditional mining methods in Sudan is being smuggled to neighbouring countries such as Egypt or Eritrea because of poor prices offered by the Central Bank of Sudan (CBoS).