Flooded pits in Burundi kill at least 13 gold miners

An official in Burundi says the bodies of 13 gold miners have been recovered from two pits in which they were trapped by flood water.

Nicodème Ndahabonyimana, a district administrator in the northwestern province of Cibitoke, said the miners could not be saved after the pits collapsed Friday night amid torrential rainfall.

The bodies of two other miners who were missing and presumed dead have not been recovered, he said, urging artisanal miners to avoid pits during the rainy season.

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Police and other authorities on Saturday unsuccessfully tried to extract the miners from the pits, flooded with water from the overflowing Rugogo river.

Such mining disasters are frequently reported in Burundi’s northwest and northeast, where people mining illegally prefer nighttime work to escape the oversight of authorities.