17 Nov 2025 - 12:29
The Kabul Tribune (KT) - At least 32 people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to a report by Al Jazeera, after a bridge at a copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding.
The incident occurred on Saturday at the Kalando mine in the southeastern province of Lualaba, the province’s interior minister, Roy Kaumbe Mayonde, said on Sunday.
“Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry,” Mayonde said.
He added that the collapse happened when miners rushed across a makeshift bridge built to cross a flooded trench.
A report by the DRC’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service (SAEMAPE) states that gunfire from soldiers at the site triggered panic among the miners. In the chaos, miners surged toward the bridge, causing people to fall on top of one another, which led to a high number of deaths and injuries.
While Mayonde put the official death toll at at least 32, the SAEMAPE report said at least 40 people had died.
The report also noted that the mine has been at the center of a long-running dispute involving wildcat miners, a cooperative meant to organize operations at the site, and the mine’s legal operators, who reportedly include Chinese partners.
Arthur Kabulo, the provincial coordinator for the National Human Rights Commission, told AFP that more than 10,000 wildcat miners work at Kalando.
Provincial authorities suspended operations at the mine on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Initiative for the Protection of Human Rights has called for an independent investigation into the role of the military in the incident, citing reports of clashes between miners and soldiers.
