Trending 
The death toll from a landslide at an illegal gold mine in the Central African Republic has risen to at least 100, local sources told AFP on Wednesday, as search operations continued at the site near the border with Cameroon.
The accident occurred on Tuesday afternoon at the Zamboye mining site, about 50 kilometres from the town of Baboua.
Several local sources said the death toll had climbed to around 100, with many others injured.
Baboua elected official Laurent Ngon Baba told AFP early on Wednesday that establishing a formal toll remained difficult.
“At this stage it’s difficult for us to establish a formal toll,” Baba said.
At least four of the victims were Cameroonian, the Cameroon Tribune reported.
Survivors were taken to hospital in Baboua, while search efforts resumed on Wednesday.
The Baboua public prosecutor said in a statement that the landslide was believed to have been caused by “the collapse of several underground tunnels in which miners were operating.”
A judicial inquiry has been opened.
Landslides are common in illegal operations outside state control in the Central African Republic.
Video images on social media showed a section of the ground at the open-pit site breaking away and burying miners.
Cedric Mbango, a miner at the site, described the incident as “catastrophic.”
“The ground completely collapsed and buried people,” he told AFP.
Gregoire Mvongo, governor of the eastern Cameroonian region, said on public CRTV radio that they were “working in close collaboration with our Central African colleagues to deal with the aftermath of this tragedy”.
In June, a similar collapse killed several dozen at the Be-Mbari gold mining site, also on the Cameroon border.
In mid-March, a landslide killed seven people at a mine in the village of Ngourroum, also in the west of the Central African Republic.
Another 20 were killed in February in Gordi, in the northeast.
