Informal gold miners in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo scoured rubble on Saturday for more than 50 colleagues presumed dead after a mine collapsed under the weight of heavy rain. Hundreds of young men in rubber boots crowded around the site of Friday’s cave-in, with some removing rocks by hand from the muddy hillside, video footage showed. Dozens of people die each year in accidents in largely unregulated artisanal mines in Congo, where often ill-equipped diggers borrow deep underground in search for ore. Alexandre Kamundala, deputy mayor of the nearby town of Kamituga, said no bodies had been recovered so far.
SOURCE: REUTERS AFRICA