Originally published at The Crux
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The Church in the Central African Republic has joined the nation in mourning the deaths of more than 100 people who died following the collapse of an artisanal gold mine on Tuesday, August 18.
In a statement August 20, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bouar, Mgr. Miroslaw Gucwa said it was with “immense sorrow ‘that he learned about the catastrophe.
The mining site where hundreds of artisanal gold miners had been working is situated in Zamboyé, a locality in the western Nana-Mambéré Prefecture of the CAR, near the Cameroon border town of Garoua -Boulai.
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The Mayor of Garoua-Boualai, Abdon Adamou told Crux Now the soil excavated to reach the gold-bearing gravel had gradually accumulated to form “a huge mountain” of mud, from which artisanal gold miners in turn came to extract small quantities of gold.
“As it has been raining heavily over the last few days,” the mayor said, “the rain has seeped deep into this mountain of mud. That’s how it started to crack and caused the landslide.”
The feeling of loss is palpable among the affected population.
Speaking to RFI, a Cameroonian miner working in
