At least 32 killed as bridge collapses at cobalt mine in Congo PHOTO

At least 32 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) after a bridge at a copper and cobalt mine collapsed due to overcrowding on November 15.

The incident occurred at the Kalando mine in southeastern Lualaba province, the province’s interior minister, Roy Kaumbe Mayonde, per Al Jazeera.

“Despite a formal ban on access to the site because of the heavy rain and the risk of a landslide, wildcat miners forced their way into the quarry,” said Mayonde.

The miners rushing across the makeshift bridge, built to get across a flooded trench, made it collapse, he added.

A report by the DRC’s Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service said the gunfire from soldiers at the site had sparked panic among the miners.

The miners then rushed to the bridge, resulting in the fall that left them “piled on top of each other, causing the deaths and injuries”, it said.

While Mayonde put the death toll at least 32, the report said at least 40 people had lost their lives.

The report stated that the mine had been at the centre of a longstanding dispute between the wildcat miners, a cooperative intended to organise digging there, and the site’s legal operators, who were alleged to have Chinese involvement.

Provincial authorities suspended operations at the site on November 16.

The DRC is the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other products, with Chinese companies controlling 80 per cent of the production in the central African country.

By Khagan Isayev