At least 70 people were killed when adjoining shafts collapsed at an artisanal gold mine in Sudan's West Kordofan state, according to a local monitoring group. The September 16 report said miners remained trapped at the al-Zaraa site near al-Nuhud as residents attempted rescues without specialised teams or heavy equipment.
The Kordofan Observatory said the collapse occurred on Tuesday and involved a series of shafts built close together. One miner told AFP that the failure of one shaft pulled down neighbouring workings. Loose, sandy ground complicated efforts to reach people below the surface, while local residents relied on the same basic tools used for mining.
Casualty estimates differed as the search continued. The observatory reported at least 70 deaths. An unnamed source in the Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary organisation that controls the area, gave AFP a toll of at least 82 dead and 50 injured. With an unknown number still trapped, those figures could not be reconciled immediately. This account uses the lower confirmed estimate while noting the higher claim.
A survivor, Khair al-Sayyed Jabara, said miners had worked through the night to find people and needed heavy machinery. The Sudan Doctors Network, a Khartoum-based medical group, also said recovery operations were continuing and warned that the death toll could rise. It attributed the scale of the disaster to missing safeguards and called for medical and logistical support.
The incident exposes the dangers surrounding informal gold production in Sudan. Local sources cited by Reuters said inadequate safety procedures and rescue equipment contributed to the high toll. Artisanal workings can place many miners in tightly clustered, unsupported shafts, leaving a single structural failure capable of triggering collapses across a wider site. The absence of a properly equipped emergency response then reduces the chances of reaching survivors quickly.
West Kordofan is controlled by the RSF, which has fought Sudan's army since April 2023. Gold produced or moved through areas outside regular state oversight has become an important source of wartime revenue. The Sudan Doctors Network said mining without adequate protection and rescue capacity puts civilian lives at direct risk and urged authorities in control of the territory to address unregulated operations.
Sudan is one of Africa's major gold producers, with much of its output coming from informal mines, including disused or unofficial locations. The work provides income during a prolonged national crisis but often proceeds without the engineering controls, inspections and emergency services expected at regulated industrial sites. At al-Zaraa, the immediate priority remained finding those still missing and getting medical help to the injured as residents continued the search.
