‘20 killed in DR Congo mine collapse’

Twenty people have been killed when a mine collapsed in the mineral-rich eastern Democratic Republic of Congo following heavy rains, the government says.

Government spokesman Lambert Mende said on Friday that the incident took place on Thursday at the mine near a village in North Kivu province.

On Friday, rescue workers were still searching for survivors and trying to recover bodies believed buried.

“We’re still digging at the site, so the death toll could rise. The provincial government is handling the rescue,” Mende said.

North Kivu and South Kivu provinces have large reserves of tin ore cassiterite and coltan (columbite-tantalite), which is used in the West to manufacture cell phones, computers, and game consoles. They also have some reserves of gold.

Several armed groups, including the March 23 movement (M23) rebels, are active in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and fighting for control of the countryâ„¢s vast mineral resources.

The M23 rebels seized Goma, which is the capital of North Kivu province, on November 20, 2012 after UN peacekeepers gave up the battle for the frontier city of one million people. M23 fighters withdrew from the city on December 1, 2012 under a ceasefire accord.

The M23 rebels defected from the Congolese army in April 2012 in protest over alleged mistreatment in the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC). They had previously been integrated into the Congolese army under a peace deal signed in 2009.

Since early May 2012, nearly 3 million people have fled their homes in the eastern Congo. About 2.5 million have resettled in Congo, but more than 460,000 have crossed into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.

Congo has faced numerous problems over the past few decades, such as grinding poverty, crumbling infrastructure, and a war in the east of the country that has dragged on since 1998 and left over 5.5 million people dead.

GJH/HN