A major tragedy has unfolded at the Zamboye gold mining site in the Central African Republic, where a landslide has left at least 100 people feared dead. The incident occurred on Tuesday near the nation's border with Cameroon, prompting an ongoing search and rescue operation to locate victims.
Video footage shared on social media appears to document the disaster, showing a massive mound of earth breaking away from the mine's edge and sweeping down into a crowd of people, burying many of them in the process. Local witnesses have described the event as catastrophic, with one miner stating, "The ground completely collapsed and buried people."
Authorities are currently working to determine the full extent of the loss of life. Laurent Ngon Baba, an elected official representing the town of Baboua, noted the difficulty in obtaining a precise count, saying, "At this stage it's difficult for us to establish a formal toll," he told AFP on Wednesday. According to the Baboua public prosecutor, preliminary findings suggest the disaster was triggered by the collapse of several underground tunnels where miners were working at the time.
