Congo-Kinshasa: Dozens Killed in DR Congo After Bridge Collapses at Copper, Cobalt Mine

At least 32 people have been killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) after a bridge at a copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding.

Unauthorised miners forced their way into the southern Kalando mine despite being banned from the site. Military personnel guarding the site then reportedly fired guns, causing the bridge to collapse after panicked miners rushed across it, government mining agency SAEMAPE said.

The military has not responded to this allegation.

The province’s interior minister, Roy Kaumbe Mayonde, said that the miners rushing across the makeshift bridge, built to get across a flooded trench, made it collapse. Mayonde called the collapse at the mine “tragic”, adding that mining companies in DR Congo were “frequently victims of this type of invasion of their concessions by illegal miners”.

Congolese authorities urged artisanal miners to take up the government’s offer of alternative training in agribusiness, in an attempt to avoid the recurrence of such tragedies.

By Allafrica