At least 100 people may have died after gold mine collapsed in Central African Republic

Published on 19/08/2026 - 17:43 GMT+2 At least 100 people may have been killed after a landslide at a gold mine in the Central African Republic on Tuesday, local sources have told the AFP news agency. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Search and rescue operations are still ongoing at the Zamboye mining site, near the CAR's border with Cameroon. Video footage posted to social media appears to show a large mound of earth break away from the side of the mine and slide down into a mass of people, burying some of them. "At this stage it's difficult for us to establish a formal toll," Laurent Ngon Baba, an elected official from the town of Baboua, told AFP on Wednesday. According to the Baboua public prosecutor, the incident is believed to have been caused by "the collapse of several underground tunnels in which miners were operating." One miner at the site described the incident as "catastrophic". "The ground completely collapsed and buried people," he said. The governor of the eastern Cameroon region, Gregoire Mvongo, said on CRTV radio that Cameroon was "working in close collaboration with our Central African colleagues to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy."