Overview
- Survivors say shafts at the Al-Saraa site near El-Nahud in West Kordofan collapsed, with at least 60 bodies recovered and additional people reported missing while searches continue using basic hand tools.
- Rescue efforts are hampered by a lack of heavy machinery and operating constraints in territory controlled by the Rapid Support Forces, so casualty counts remain provisional and based on survivor testimony to AFP.
- Many of the victims were working informal or abandoned shafts after Sudan’s economy and jobs market broke down, pushing civilians into hazardous, improvised mining to earn a living.
- Sudan produced about 70 tonnes of gold last year and both the army and the RSF draw large revenues from gold sales, a dynamic that prompted the European Union to ban imports of Sudanese-origin gold in July.
- The collapse deepens a humanitarian crisis by killing and injuring workers, complicating recovery in remote conflict zones, and raising the risk that sanctions and lost incomes will push more people into unsafe mining.