At least 200 people reportedly died in a landslide at the Rubaya mines in eastern Congo on Wednesday amid heavy rains.
Several of the coltan mining sites, which are under the control of the M23 rebels, collapsed, and many bodies have not yet been found, the Associated Press (AP) reported Saturday.
The spokesperson of the rebel-appointed governor in the North-Kivu province said, “For now, there are more than 200 dead, some of whom are still in the mud and have not yet been recovered.”
According to Sky News, over 15 percent of the rare metal tantalum, which is extracted from coltan, is mined in the region. Tantalum is used in smartphones.
In addition, the article said its reporters found children as young as four working at mine sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The AP article said “Congo’s government in a statement on X expressed solidarity with the victims’ families and accused the rebels of illegally and unsafely exploiting the region’s natural resources.”
A former miner told the outlet the tunnels are hand-dug, therefore, dangerous landslides are frequent due to the faulty construction. He also said there are no safety measures.
“In a single pit, there can be as many as 500 miners, and because the tunnels run parallel, one collapse can affect many pits at once,” Clovis Mafare explained.
Miners are paid a few dollars a day to dig by hand, according to Reuters:
In 2023, Breitbart News reported “The DRC’s cobalt mining industry is dominated by Chinese companies, which purchase the raw ore and process it, then use it to manufacture lithium-ion batteries, common in mobile phones and other electronics as well as electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Supporters of an energy ‘transition’ away from fossil fuels such as coal and crude oil tout these technologies, particularly EVs, as the key to lowering the world’s carbon emissions and limiting the alleged negative effects of climate change. Yet the facts on the ground in DRC suggest that obtaining the raw materials for this technology is toxifying farmlands and water supplies, endangering and ultimately shortening the lives of a significant percentage of Congolese people.”
A panel of experts testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in March the Chinese companies mining for “green” energy minerals in Africa were creating a “catastrophic and unacceptable” situation for the locals living there, according to Breitbart News.
“The experts urged American officials to act to contain the malignant Chinese influence destroying an entire generation of African children and the environment in which they live, stressing that the minerals in question – cobalt, lithium, tantalum, and copper, among others – are pivotal to any high-tech economy,” the report said, noting, “The issue of child slavery in the mines featured prominently during the hearing.”
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