KHARTOUM: A partial collapse of a gold mine has killed 13 miners and wounded six others in southern Sudan, the state mining company said on Wednesday.
The collapse occurred in “five abandoned shafts” of the Umm Fakroun mine in South Kordofan state last Friday, the Sudanese Mineral Resources Company (SMRC) said in a statement.
Since conflict erupted between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in April 2023, both sides’ war efforts have been largely funded by Sudan’s gold industry, in addition to foreign backers.
“The shafts had been abandoned and shut down, but some miners snuck in and were working illegally,” the statement said.
The war has devastated Sudan’s already fragile economy and left much of the country out of work, yet SMRC announced a “five-year high” in production of 70 tons in 2025.
Of last year’s 70 tons, only “20 tons have been exported through official channels,” army-aligned Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim told AFP this month.
Africa’s third-largest country is one of the continent’s top gold producers, but artisanal and small-scale gold mining, like Umm Fakroun, accounts for the majority of gold extracted.
These mines lack proper safety measures and use hazardous chemicals that often cause widespread diseases in nearby areas.
Before the war pushed 25 million Sudanese into acute food insecurity, artisanal mining employed more than two million people, according to industry figures.
The war has left tens of thousands killed and around 11 million displaced.
Sudan gold mine collapse kills 13 miners
https://arab.news/b6gbc
Sudan gold mine collapse kills 13 miners
- The collapse occurred in “five abandoned shafts” of the Umm Fakroun mine in South Kordofan
- “The shafts had been abandoned and shut down, but some miners snuck in and were working illegally,” the statement said
Top Hamas leader rejects disarmament or ‘foreign rule’
- “As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation” said Meshal
DOHA: A senior Hamas leader said Sunday that the Palestinian Islamist movement would not surrender its weapons nor accept foreign intervention in Gaza, pushing back against US and Israeli demands.
“Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept,” Khaled Meshal said at a conference in Doha.
“As long as there is occupation, there is resistance. Resistance is a right of peoples under occupation ... something nations take pride in,” said Meshal, who previously headed the group.
Hamas, an Islamist movement, has waged an armed struggle against what it sees as Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. It launched a deadly cross-border raid into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, which triggered the latest war.
A US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza is in its second phase, which foresees that demilitarization of the territory — including the disarmament of Hamas — along with a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Hamas has repeatedly said that disarmament is a red line, although it has indicated it could consider handing over its weapons to a future Palestinian governing authority.
Israeli officials say that Hamas still has around 20,000 fighters and about 60,000 Kalashnikovs in Gaza.
A Palestinian technocratic committee has been set up with a goal of taking over the day-to-day governance in the battered Gaza Strip, but it remains unclear whether, or how, it will address the issue of demilitarization.
The committee operates under the so-called “Board of Peace,” an initiative launched by US President Donald Trump.
Originally conceived to oversee the Gaza truce and post-war reconstruction, the board’s mandate has since expanded, prompting concerns among critics that it could evolve into a rival to the United Nations.
Trump unveiled the board at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos last month, where leaders and officials from nearly two dozen countries joined him in signing its founding charter.
Alongside the Board of Peace, Trump also created a Gaza Executive Board — an advisory panel to the Palestinian technocratic committee — comprising international figures including US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.
On Sunday, Meshal urged the Board of Peace to adopt what he called a “balanced approach” that would allow for Gaza’s reconstruction and the flow of aid to its roughly 2.2 million residents, while warning that Hamas would “not accept foreign rule” over Palestinian territory.
“We adhere to our national principles and reject the logic of guardianship, external intervention, or the return of a mandate in any form,” Meshal said.
“Palestinians are to govern Palestinians. Gaza belongs to the people of Gaza and to Palestine. We will not accept foreign rule,” he added.
