The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has reported that at least 200 people are feared dead following a massive landslide at a militia-controlled mine in the country’s eastern region.
The disaster struck the Rubaya mine in North Kivu province, a territory held by the M23 armed group, which seized the area in April 2024 with reported support from Rwanda.
Local scavengers said a hillside collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, followed by a second landslide on Thursday morning.
Eraston Bahati Musanga, the M23-appointed governor, confirmed the death toll to AFP but acknowledged that the figures remain difficult to verify independently due to ongoing communication challenges.
The region’s phone network has been down for days, and access has been further restricted since the M23 takeover, forcing authorities and civil society groups to flee.
Information is reportedly trickling in from motorbike couriers moving across the region, making it challenging to establish a precise casualty count, according to humanitarian sources.
The Rubaya mine is a major coltan-producing site, supplying 15 to 30 percent of the world’s demand for the mineral, essential in electronics manufacturing, including laptops and mobile phones.
Experts estimate the M23 militia earns approximately $800,000 monthly from the mine, largely through a seven-dollar-per-kilo tax on coltan production and sales.
The UN has criticized Rwanda for allegedly exploiting the militia to siphon the DRC’s mineral resources, though Rwanda denies any military support for the group.
Kinshasa has called on the international community to “fully grasp the scale of this tragedy,” attributing the disaster to “armed occupation and an organised system of looting” by the militia.
The broader eastern DRC also contains significant deposits of gold and tin, in addition to its substantial coltan reserves.
