At least 50 miners died this Saturday when a traditional gold mine in the desert area of Howaid, in northern Sudan, reported a non -governmental organization of the northern state of Río Nilo, which indicated that The workers died from suffocation.
The State Resistance Committees said in a statement that “more than 50 miners who worked inside the mine at the time of the collapse died from suffocation and their bodies are being recovered,” since emergency teams did not arrive in time due to the desert location of the area and the poor state of the roads.
They also denounced that the delay was because the mine is in the state of the Red Sea, but is under the administration of the city of Atbara, in the state of Río Nilo, which “It caused administrative confusion in the response to the accident, in addition to the lack of specialized emergency equipment. “
The Howaid area is located between the towns of Atbara and Haiya, the latter in the northeastern state of Red Sea, and there are traditional gold mines, where this precious metal is extracted manually already small scale. In fact, the same area was the scene of a similar accident that occurred last April, when part of a mine collapsed and caused several injured.
However, resistance committees denounced that authorities have not implemented significant measures to improve mines security and prevent such accidents.
According to the Ministry of Minerals of Sudan, the artisanal or traditional gold mining sector is widespread throughout the country, since It is found in 14 of the 18 states And he uses more than two million people, while the metal is exported to several neighboring and Arab countries.
In fact, the control of natural resources such as gold was one of the factors that led to the Sudanese Army and the Paramilitary Group Fast Support forces (FAR) to start a war in April 2023, which has so far resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and It has caused the displacement of about 13 million people.
