Authorities in Cameroon have sealed at least 30 gold mines, including some owned by Chinese, after at least 33 young miners died in landslides this month and scores more were declared missing. Officials said Monday that they are also concerned about working conditions that have caused deaths within the seasonal gold mine community.
A heavy downpour on Monday kept businesses closed in Kambele, a village in Batouri district on Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic. But 70-year-old gold miner Vidal Dula says he braved the rains to meet with officials of local mining company Invest Batouri. He was asking for help in burying his 27-year-old son Vincent Dula, who died at a mining site on Saturday.
Vidal Dula says Vincent was trapped in a hole where he and 20 miners searched for gold. He says friends dug at the collapsed portion of the gold mine and recovered Vincent’s body. Vidal says the death was a huge loss for his family as Vincent was his only son.
The company has not responded.
Cameroon says Kambele is home to several thousand Cameroonians, Chadian and Central African Republic civilians either working or looking for jobs in gold mines.
