Six people were killed and up to 20 others are feared trapped after a gold mine collapsed in northern Sudan, authorities announced.
The incident occurred on Friday in the Umm Aud area, west of Berber city in River Nile State, according to Berber locality’s executive director, Hassan Ibrahim Karrar.
Karrar confirmed that “efforts are ongoing to rescue those trapped under the rubble,” without specifying the cause of the collapse.
Since the outbreak of fighting in April 2023 between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), both sides have largely financed their war efforts through the country’s gold sector.
Official sources and NGOs say that most of Sudan’s gold trade passes through the United Arab Emirates, which has been widely accused of supplying weapons to the RSF — a claim the UAE denies.
Despite the war, the army-backed government announced a record gold production of 64 tons in 2024.
Sudan is the third-largest country in Africa by land area and one of the continent’s top gold producers.
However, most of the gold is extracted through primitive, small-scale mining operations that lack proper safety measures, often relying on hazardous chemicals that pose serious health risks to miners and nearby communities.
Before the war plunged 25 million Sudanese into severe food insecurity, mining employed more than two million people, according to industry figures.
Mining experts today say a significant portion of the gold produced by both warring parties is smuggled through Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt before reaching the UAE, currently the world’s second-largest gold exporter.
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced nearly 10 million, creating the world’s largest displacement crisis, with another 4 million Sudanese fleeing across borders.
