Several coltan mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s North Kivu province collapsed amid landslides on Wednesday and Thursday, killing at least 200 people and injuring several others, according to authorities associated with the M23 rebel group.

“For now, there are more than 200 dead, some of whom are still in the mud and have not yet been recovered,” ​Lubumba Kambere Muyisa, spokesperson for the rebel-appointed provincial governor said on Friday.

Muyisa said the dead included miners, children and market women.

The toll could not yet be independently verified by agencies.

Scavengers said part of a hillside in the Rubaya mining zone collapsed on Wednesday afternoon and that a second landslide struck on Thursday morning.

“It rained, then the landslide followed and swept people away. Some were buried and others are still in the pits,” freelance miner Franck Bolingo told AFP news agency.

Muyisas said the governor had temporarily halted artisanal mining on the site and ordered the relocation of residents who had built shelters near the mine.

Rubaya lies in the heart of mineral-rich eastern Congo, a region that has experienced decades of violence from government forces and different armed groups.

The Rwanda-backed M23, one of those groups, seized the town and took control of its mines in May 2024.

Since taking Rubaya, the group is reported by the UN to have put taxes and the trade and transport of coltan, generating at least US$800,000 a month.

Coltan is the ore from which tantalum – a rare metal used in the manufacture of smartphones, computers and aircraft engines – is extracted.

The Rubaya region accounts for more than 15% of the global supply of tantalum.

DW