BAMAKO, Mali: A landslide engulfed a group of mainly women gold miners in Mali, killing several of them, the governor’s office of the Koulikoro region in the West African country said Thursday.
In a statement broadcast on Mali’s national television, Koulikoro’s governor, Col. Lamine Kapory Sanogo, said “the women (gold miners) were numerous at an excavation in search of gold, and the excavation was surrounded by a dike that gave way and water entered with mud and engulfed the women.”
The office of the governor said the landslide at the artisanal gold mine in southern Mali happened on Wednesday. It said several of the miners were killed but did not provide a number.
This is not the first time such accidents have occurred at a gold mine in Mali, which is known as one of the three gold producing countries in Africa. In January last year, an unregulated gold mine collapsed in Mali, killing more than 70 people near the capital Bamako.
In recent years, there have been concerns that profits from unregulated mining in northern Mali could benefit extremists active in that part of the country.
The region of this latest collapse, however, is far to the south of that and closer to Bamako.
“Gold is by far Mali’s most important export, comprising more than 80 percent of total exports in 2021,” according to the International Trade Administration with the US Department of Commerce. It says more than 2 million people, or more than 10 percent of Mali’s population, depend on the mining sector for income.
Artisanal gold mining is estimated to produce around 30 tons of gold a year and represents 6 percent of Mali’s annual gold production.
Multiple artisanal gold miners, mostly women, buried in landslide in southern Mali
https://arab.news/wb4kn
Multiple artisanal gold miners, mostly women, buried in landslide in southern Mali
- Several miners were killed, the governor of Koulikoro region announced on TV, without providing a number
- In January last year, an unregulated gold mine collapsed in Mali, killing more than 70 people near the capital Bamako.
Europeans push back at US over claim they face ‘civilizational erasure’
- “Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” Kallas told the conference
MUNICH: A top European Union official on Sunday rejected the notion that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” pushing back at criticism of the continent by the Trump administration.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas addressed the Munich Security Conference a day after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a somewhat reassuring message to European allies. He struck a less aggressive tone than Vice President JD Vance did in lecturing them at the same gathering last year but maintained a firm tone on Washington’s intent to reshape the trans-Atlantic alliance and push its policy priorities.
Kallas alluded to criticism in the US national security strategy released in December, which asserted that economic stagnation in Europe “is eclipsed by the real and more stark prospect of civilizational erasure.” It suggested that Europe is being enfeebled by its immigration policies, declining birth rates, “censorship of free speech and suppression of political opposition” and a “loss of national identities and self-confidence.”
“Contrary to what some may say, woke, decadent Europe is not facing civilizational erasure,” Kallas told the conference. “In fact, people still want to join our club and not just fellow Europeans,” she added, saying she was told when visiting Canada last year that many people there have an interest in joining the EU.
Kallas rejected what she called “European-bashing.”
“We are, you know, pushing humanity forward, trying to defend human rights and all this, which is actually bringing also prosperity for people. So that’s why it’s very hard for me to believe these accusations.”
In his conference speech, Rubio said that an end to the trans-Atlantic era “is neither our goal nor our wish,” adding that “our home may be in the Western hemisphere, but we will always be a child of Europe.”
He made clear that the Trump administration is sticking to its guns on issues such as migration, trade and climate. And European officials who addressed the gathering made clear that they in turn will stand by their values, including their approach to free speech, climate change and free trade.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Saturday that Europe must defend “the vibrant, free and diverse societies that we represent, showing that people who look different to each other can live peacefully together, that this isn’t against the tenor of our times.”
“Rather, it is what makes us strong,” he said.
Kallas said Rubio’s speech sent an important message that America and Europe are and will remain intertwined.
“It is also clear that we don’t see eye to eye on all the issues and this will remain the case as well, but I think we can work from there,” she said.
