Rescuers face a race against time after a gold mine collapse in West Kordofan killed at least 82 people and left dozens injured. Teams of fellow miners and local rescue crews worked through the night with rudimentary tools, recovering 60 bodies by dawn and a further 22 later on Wednesday, local officials said.
Authorities say around 50 people were injured. The number of those still missing remains unknown, and officials warn that heavy equipment will be required to reach those believed to be trapped beneath unstable rubble.
The accident highlights the hazards of Sudan’s largely unregulated gold sector, where millions of people rely on small-scale mining for income. Miners commonly extract ore from unstable shafts with little or no safety equipment, and rescue operations often begin with improvised tools and local labour rather than specialised machinery.
Gold has taken on a strategic role in the country’s four-year conflict, serving as a crucial source of funding for both sides. Observers have also said much of Sudan’s production is smuggled abroad, including to the United Arab Emirates, complicating efforts to regularise the trade and enforce safety standards.
In a region already battered by war, the logistical and security challenges will limit how quickly heavy machinery and specialist teams can reach the site. That constraint, combined with the unstable nature of informal mining shafts, raises the risk that more people remain trapped or that recovery will be delayed.
Officials and rescue workers must now balance urgent search efforts with the need to stabilise the site, while families and communities confront the immediate human and economic fallout from the disaster.
