At least 13 people have been confirmed dead and others remain missing following the collapse of a gold mine in central Liberia on Monday evening, according to an official from the country's Disaster Management Agency, reported by Agence France-Presse on Wednesday.
Approximately 25 workers were trapped underground when the mine collapsed. Archievigo Du, spokesperson for the National Agency, stated that 13 bodies had been recovered, while four survivors were rescued.
Du added that the survivors are receiving medical treatment, and search operations are ongoing to locate other victims.
Gold mining sites often face the threat of deadly land collapses, making this activity hazardous. Authorities struggle to regulate the extraction of precious metals effectively.
Liberia, one of the world's poorest countries, has long grappled with illegal gold or diamond mining activities, lacking the resources to adequately manage them.
In 2020, nearly fifty people were killed in a mine collapse in the northwest of the country.
Fatal incidents regularly occur in the region.
In January, over 70 people died in a tunnel collapse at a gold mining site in southwestern Mali.
In February 2022, an explosion of dynamite stockpiles at an informal gold mining site led to the deaths of at least 59 people in southwestern Burkina Faso.
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