Overview
- The Ministry of Mines reported more than 200 deaths, including about 70 children, with injured survivors evacuated to medical facilities in Goma.
- The M23/AFC authorities who control Rubaya rejected the official toll, claiming about five deaths and attributing the incident to bombings rather than a landslide.
- A miner at the site said he helped recover over 200 bodies, offering an eyewitness account that supports a far higher casualty count.
- The collapse is the second mass-casualty event at Rubaya in roughly six weeks, following a late-January disaster that also killed more than 200 people.
- Rubaya produces roughly 15% of the world’s coltan and has been under M23 control since 2024, with U.N.-cited reporting of at least $800,000 a month in rebel tax revenues and recent inclusion on a Congolese shortlist offered to the U.S. under a minerals cooperation framework.