At least 82 people have been killed since a gold mine collapsed at Al-Nuhud town in Sudan’s West Kordofan on Sunday, with many more still missing and feared dead beneath the rubble.According to locals cited by the Reuters and AFP news agencies, the high death toll at tht Al-Zaraa mine was due to the the absence of safety procedures or rescue equipment at the makeshift wells, when the shafts collapsed.“The shafts here are all close together, if one collapses, it brings down all the ones next to it”, said Al-Amin Suleiman, a miner.“There are people still trapped underground since yesterday. I don’t think they are alive”, he added.One of the survivors, Khair al-Sayyed Jabara, told AFP that an all-night rescue operation was carried out by his fellow miners using the same rudimentary tools they use to mine.“We don’t know how many more are still inside,” he said. “Everyone’s working very hard to retrieve the bodies or any survivors, but it’s difficult. We need heavy machinery to clear the rock and soil.”The West Kordofan, along with the neighbouring Darfur region, is under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a force accused of genocide in Darfur. Despite having declared a parallel government, the RSF’s governing capabilities remain limited, and people in western Sudan remain largely dependent on aid and local community networks for survival.Sudan is one of Africa’s largest gold producers, but the vast majority of its gold is extracted through dangerous artisanal mining techniques before being smuggled out of the country.Since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the RSF, the war efforts of both sides have been largely funded by the gold industry, alongside foreign backers. West Kordofan, under RSF control, is a key source of revenue for the paramilitary force through gold mining.The conflict has devastated Sudan’s already fragile economy and left much of the country out of work, driving many people into a dangerous gold rush. Even before the war pushed nearly 20 million Sudanese into severe hunger, artisanal mining employed more than two million people, according to industry figures.Nearly all of the gold smuggled or exported from Sudan is routed through the United Arab Emirates, the world’s second-largest gold exporter. The UAE denies widespread reports that it arms the RSF.Sudan is one of the continent’s top gold producers, having recorded a “five-year high” of 70 tonnes of production last year, according to official figures. However, officials say most of this gold is smuggled across Sudan’s borders , including through Chad, South Sudan and Egypt, before reaching the UAE.
