A landslide at an illegal gold mine in Chad has killed about 30 people, a government minister said on Thursday.
The mine in the Tibesti region near the Libyan border collapsed early on Tuesday and more victims might still be buried in the rubble, defense minister Mahamat Sala told Reuters.
Tibesti has witnessed rapid growth in illegal mining in recent years, often by refugees from Sudan looking for quick money to head to Europe or by rebels fighting the army.
Unsafe methods and a lack of oversight mean accidents are common at such mines in Africa, where impoverished communities seek a share of the vast resources that are usually dug up by international companies, processed and sent overseas.
Last June, more than 40 people died when part of a Glencore copper and cobalt mine coDozens of people are feared dead after an illegal gold mine collapsed in Chad, officials have said.
Defence Minister Mahamat Abali Salah told AFP news agency on Wednesday that the mine caved in early on Tuesday at Kouri Bougoudi, a zone beset by illegal mining near the Libyan border.
There there were "many deaths, for sure," Salah said. "A mine collapsed. I cannot say exactly how many fatalities there are but there are many people working in these mines, so there must be many deaths, for sure," Salah told AFP by telephone.
An army officer who requested anonymity spoke of "around 30 deaths", basing the figure on witness accounts with the army yet to arrive on the scene which is in a remote small town.
A local lawmaker spoke for his part of "a dozen deaths," basing his tally on what witnesses had related to him.
"I cannot give you an exact tally as we rushed troops to the scene this morning," said Salah, saying he expected a report during the morning.
Tibesti region
The Tibesti region where the accident occurred is home to various gangs and traffickers seeking to profit from a gold rush.
Clashes in January between rival groups of miners left "dozens" dead, according to security and mining sources after fighting between groups of Arabs from Libya and miners from Chad's Ouaddai community, the sources said.
Kouri Bougoudi has itself been the scene of clashes among rival ethnic, local and foreign groups since 2012 and 2013 after the discovery of gold deposits there.
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