More than 200 people were killed this week when a landslide caused part of the Rubaya coltan mine to collapse in North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local officials said on Sunday (1 February). The disaster struck a rebel-controlled mining area during the rainy season.
The collapse occurred on Wednesday (28 January) at the Rubaya mine, which is under the control of the AFC/M23 rebel group, according to Lumumba Kambere Muyisa, spokesperson for the rebel-appointed provincial governor.
The precise death toll remained unclear by Friday due to communication outages and insecurity in the area.
“More than 200 people were victims of this landslide, including miners, children and market women,” Muyisa told the press, adding that around 20 injured people were receiving treatment in health facilities. Some victims were rescued with serious injuries.
The collapse was blamed on unstable ground during the rainy season.
“The ground is fragile. It was the ground that gave way while the victims were in the hole,” Muyisa said.
An adviser to the governor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 227 deaths had been confirmed so far, while the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government said on Sunday it feared “at least 200 dead” in what it described as a “massive” landslide at a militia-held mine.
Scavengers reported that part of a hillside collapsed on Wednesday afternoon, followed by a second landslide on Thursday morning.
Rubaya is one of the world’s most important sources of coltan, producing an estimated 15 to 30% of global supply. The mineral is refined into tantalum, a heat-resistant metal used in mobile phones, computers, aerospace components and gas turbines.
Local miners work manually at the site for just a few dollars a day, according to press reports.
Eastern Congo holds vast reserves of coltan, gold and tin, including more than 60% of the world’s known coltan deposits.
The mine has been under M23 control since April 2024, after the group seized the area during a renewed offensive in eastern Congo.
The United Nations says the rebels have plundered Rubaya’s mineral wealth to finance their insurgency, which United Nations experts estimate generates around $800,000 a month through a tax on coltan production and sales.
M23, whose stated aim is to overthrow the government in Kinshasa and protect the Congolese Tutsi minority, has captured large swathes of resource-rich territory since its resurgence in 2021. The group is accused by the UN and Congolese authorities of being backed by neighbouring Rwanda, an allegation Kigali denies.
Information from the area has been slow to emerge, with phone networks down and government officials and civil society groups having fled when the rebels arrived.
A humanitarian source said details were arriving “in dribs and drabs from motorbike couriers circulating the region”, complicating efforts to establish an accurate death toll.
Kinshasa urged the international community to “fully grasp the scale of this tragedy”, blaming it on “armed occupation and an organised system of looting”.
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