<\/p>\n
GOMA, Congo (AP) \u2014 A mine collapse on Tuesday at a major coltan mining site in eastern\u00a0Congo\u00a0left at least 200 dead, according to Congolese authorities, a number disputed by the rebel group that controls the mine.<\/p>\n
The collapse took place Tuesday at the\u00a0Rubaya mines, which are controlled by the M23 rebels, Congo’s Ministry of Mines said in a statement on Wednesday,\u00a0the latest such accident\u00a0in the country’s mineral-rich and rebel-controlled territories.<\/p>\n
Fanny Kaj, a senior official in the M23 rebel group, which controls the mines, disputed the figure and said that the collapse was caused by \u201cbombings\u201d and only five people had been killed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can confirm that what people are publishing is not true. There was no landslide; there were bombings, and the death toll isn\u2019t what people are saying. It\u2019s simply about five people who died,\u201d Kaj said.<\/p>\n
Ibrahim Taluseke, a miner at the site, said that he had helped to recover over 200 bodies from the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are afraid, but these are lives that are in danger,\u201d said Taluseke. \u201cThe owners of the pits do not accept that the exact number of deaths be revealed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubaya lies in the heart of\u00a0eastern Congo, a mineral-rich part of the Central African nation which for decades has been ripped apart by violence from government forces and different armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23, whose recent resurgence has escalated the conflict, worsening an\u00a0already acute humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n
Congo is a major supplier of coltan, a black metallic ore that contains the rare metal tantalum, a key component in the production of smartphones, computers and aircraft engines.<\/p>\n
The country produced about 40% of the world\u2019s coltan in 2023, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, with Australia, Canada and Brazil being other big suppliers. Over 15% of the world\u2019s supply of tantalum comes from Rubaya\u2019s mines.<\/p>\n
In May 2024, M23\u00a0seized the town and took control of its mines. According to a U.N. report, since seizing Rubaya, the rebels have imposed taxes on the trade and transport of coltan, generating at least $800,000 a month.<\/p>\n
Eastern Congo\u00a0has been in and out of crisis for decades. Various conflicts have created one of the world\u2019s largest humanitarian crises with more than 7 million people displaced, including\u00a0more than 300,000 who have fled their homes since December.<\/p>\n
In June,\u00a0the Congolese and Rwandan government signed a peace deal\u00a0brokered by the U.S. and\u00a0negotiations continue between rebels and Congo. However, fighting continues on several fronts in eastern Congo, continuing to claim numerous civilian and military casualties.<\/p>\n
The deal between Congo and Rwanda also\u00a0opens up access to critical minerals\u00a0for the U.S. government and American companies.<\/p>\n
A similar\u00a0collapse last month\u00a0killed over 200.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GOMA, Congo (AP) \u2014 A mine collapse on Tuesday at a major coltan mining site in eastern\u00a0Congo\u00a0left at least 200 dead, according to Congolese authorities, a number disputed by the rebel group that controls the mine. The collapse took place Tuesday at the\u00a0Rubaya mines, which are controlled by the M23 rebels, Congo’s Ministry of Mines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2349,1019,7007,7006,505,6214,7008,5130],"class_list":{"0":"post-21211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jesus","8":"tag-authorities","9":"tag-collapse","10":"tag-coltan","11":"tag-congo","12":"tag-dead","13":"tag-dispute","14":"tag-rebels","15":"tag-toll"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}