AA/Bamako/Amarana Maiga
More than 20 gold miners were killed and several others missing following the collapse of a gold panning site in Kalako in the Yanfolila circle, Bougouni region (southern Mali), Anadolu learned on Friday. of the municipal authorities of Gouandiaka to which the gold panning site falls.
“The collapse took place on Saturday June 8 evening at the Faranida site. The same day, we were able to dig up 4 bodies. People spent the whole night looking for possible victims. This is how on Sunday we already had 8 deaths,” Moussa Séya Sidibé, 2nd deputy mayor of Gouandiaka, told Anadolu.
“The search continued until Tuesday when the deputy prefect arrived at the scene of the tragedy and ordered the search to stop on Wednesday when 20 bodies were found,” added the same source.
“We had to completely abandon the area because it was very dangerous to continue doing research with the rain falling incessantly and we saw faults. If people continue to work on these faults, there could be further collapses,” he said.
“We still do not know the number of people who worked on the site before the collapse,” said Sidibé adding “what is certain, there are still victims under the rubble. We are in the process of counting the number through the bags of travel and the motorcycles of the gold miners on the site We have dozens of motorcycles and travel bags, the owners have not been identified.
In January 2024, a collapse of a gallery on a gold panning site in Kobadani in the commune of Nouga, in the Koulikoro region in southern Mali, left 70 dead.
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