November 17, 2025 | 04:01 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - At least 32 people were killed when a packed bridge at a copper mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo collapsed, a local government official said on Sunday. Quoted by Anadolu, Provincial Interior Minister Roy Kaumba Mayonde said the accident on Saturday occurred because the diggers crossed too quickly, causing the emergency bridge to collapse into the flooded trench.
Mayonde said an investigation had been launched to find those responsible for the tragedy. "Despite a strict ban on entering the site due to heavy rains and the risk of landslides, illegal diggers forcibly entered the mine," he said.
Local media reports earlier said that as many as 70 people died in the incident at the Kalando mine in Mulondo in Lualaba province. A circulating online video taken from a distance showed that much of the mine had collapsed. Those at the site scrambled to save themselves from danger in panic.
While search and rescue operations continued, many workers were trapped under the rubble.
Mining accidents frequently occur in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to unregulated mining, inadequate safety measures, and poor infrastructure.
The Initiative for the Protection of Human Rights called for an independent investigation into the military's role in the deaths, referring to reports of clashes between miners and the military.
The Congo is the world's largest cobalt producer, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products. According to Al Jazeera, Chinese companies control 80 percent of the production in the Central African country.
Allegations of child labor, unsafe conditions, and corruption have long plagued the country's cobalt mining industry. The Congo's mineral wealth has also been at the heart of conflicts that have ravaged the eastern region of the country for more than three decades.
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