A LANDSLIDE at an illegal mining in northern Tanzania claimed the lives of 22 people, the BBC reported on Monday.
The incident occurred at Ng’alita mine in Bariadi district, Simiyu region on Saturday, the BBC said citing the district’s commissioner Simon Simalenga in a Reuters interview.
It occurred after a group of people started mining in an area where activity was restricted due to heavy rains, he told Reuters.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan expressed her “great sadness” at the news. “These fellow Tanzanians were small miners in the area, trying to earn a living for themselves, their families,” she said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Simalenga said he was initially told that there were 19 to 20 people trapped in the mines, but that 22 bodies ended up being retrieved.
AFP news agency reported Faustine Mtitu, acting commander for the region’s fire and rescue forces as saying that that the search had been ended as he was “convinced that there are no more bodies trapped in the rubble.”
Simalenga said the group of people began mining in the mineral-rich area about three weeks ago before the government brought in safety procedures. The area was restricted because of ongoing heavy rains, which have caused flash floods, the BBC said.
“The regional mining officer visited them and stopped them from mining as it was working on the required procedures” Simalenga said.
Unregulated and illegal mining is common in Tanzania, which is one of the largest gold producers in the world. But it is rife across the globe.
Earlier this month, 15 illegal miners trapped after a ground collapse at the mine, 270 kilometres east of the capital Harare in Zimbabwe were successfully rescued. But in Zambia during December, at least eleven miners were killed during the collapse of an illegal mine, according to a report by AFP.
