Over 200 Killed in Landslides at M23-Controlled Rubaya Coltan Mine in Eastern DRC

Overview

• Provincial officials reported more than 200 dead, including children, with an adviser saying the confirmed toll had reached at least 227.
• Heavy rains caused a hillside to give way, triggering successive slides that collapsed multiple pits on Wednesday and Thursday.
• Rebel-appointed authorities in North Kivu said they suspended mining operations and ordered nearby families to relocate.
• Residents and survivors have been retrieving bodies with limited assistance, and local reports describe dozens of injuries.
• Rubaya provides roughly 15% of global coltan, and the United Nations says M23 extracts and taxes minerals to fund its insurgency, a link Rwanda denies supporting.