Sudan: Al Zara Mine Collapse Near En Nahud, at Least 70 Dead
A collapse of connected shafts at the Al Zara gold mine near En Nahud in Sudan's West Kordofan has killed at least 70 people by one estimate, an RSF source puts the toll at 82 dead, 50 wounded.
A series of interconnected shafts at the Al Zara artisanal gold mine, near the town of En Nahud in Sudan’s West Kordofan state, collapsed this week, though sources disagree on both the day it happened and the final death toll. The Kordofan Observatory, a group that monitors conditions on the ground, said on Wednesday that at least 70 people had died and that the collapse occurred on Tuesday. The Associated Press, citing a local official who spoke on condition of anonymity, reported that the collapse began as early as Sunday in one shaft before spreading to neighboring ones, and that 82 bodies had been pulled out by Wednesday afternoon.
A source within the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which controls West Kordofan, told AFP that 82 people had died and 50 were injured, with an unknown number still trapped. This source also spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.
No specialized rescue team has reached the site. Local residents and surviving miners are digging with their bare hands and improvised tools in the loose, sandy ground. According to the local official who spoke to AP, rescuers have only a single privately owned forklift at their disposal, and the trapped miners are buried more than 30 meters deep.
Surviving miner Khair el-Sayed Jabara described the situation on the ground as dire. “We have no machinery to clear the earth and rocks, and we are searching for survivors at a depth of more than 30 meters,” Jabara told AP, adding that dozens of people had been working at the mine. He told Al Jazeera the same day: “We don’t know how many are still inside.”
Another survivor, Amin Suleiman, told AP that the shafts had been dug so close together that the collapse of one pulled down the ones next to it. “There are still people trapped inside,” Suleiman said.
Why do the death tolls differ?
The official picture keeps shifting by the hour. The Sudan Doctors Network, a humanitarian group based in Khartoum, said earlier on Wednesday that 67 bodies had been recovered. On Wednesday morning, one survivor claimed that 60 bodies had been pulled out by that point. By Wednesday afternoon, the number of recovered bodies had risen to 82, according to Suleiman Abu Hmeida, a member of the Emergency Response Room. “But dozens of people are still listed as missing,” Abu Hmeida told AP. The Emergency Response Room is a network that tracks the conflict and assists communities across war torn Sudan. The Kordofan Observatory, for its part, estimates that 70 miners were killed or are missing at the site, which it says stretches over more than a kilometer of sandy terrain.
The Sudan Doctors Network warned that the death toll could still rise, and condemned what it called the “negligence” that it says left workers without basic protection. The group stressed that even the most basic safety equipment for employees was missing at the site.
Who controls the region, and why does gold matter to the war?
West Kordofan is controlled by the RSF, the paramilitary force that has been fighting Sudan’s army for control of the country since April 2023. Smuggled gold is one of the RSF’s main sources of revenue. Experts commissioned by the United Nations say the RSF controls gold bearing areas in Darfur and Kordofan, partly to help finance a war that has so far killed at least 59,000 people, according to an estimate by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) project, though humanitarian organizations note the real toll is likely far higher.
Sudan is one of Africa’s largest gold producers, and most of that metal comes from dangerous, informal mines at abandoned or unregistered sites, Al Zara among them, one of thousands of small, informal mines scattered across the country. Collapses like this one are not rare at Sudanese gold mines: a 2021 collapse killed 38 people, and one in 2023 killed 14 miners.
The search for the trapped continues, and local officials and humanitarian organizations warn that the final death toll could exceed every estimate published so far, since the exact number of miners who were inside the shafts at the moment of the collapse still has not been determined.
