Pope Leo XIV offered prayers on Sunday for the victims of a deadly mining accident in the Central African Republic.
“I am also close to the people of the Central African Republic,” the pontiff said, “who are mourning the victims of the collapse that occurred at a mine in Zamboyé.”
“May the Lord receive those who lost their lives,” Leo said, “and sustain efforts to ensure safety and legality at mining sites.”
Leo made his appeal in remarks following the Angelus prayer.
Over 100 people perished in the August 18 incident, when a landslide struck an open-pit gold mine in Zamboyé.
The government of the CAR closed the site on Saturday, citing non-compliance with regulatory procedures.
Hundreds of artisanal gold miners had been working the Zamboyé site, located in the western Nana-Mambéré Prefecture of the CAR, near the Cameroon border town of Garoua -Boulai.
The Mayor of Garoua-Boualai, Abdon Adamou, told Crux Now the soil excavated to reach the gold-bearing gravel had gradually accumulated to form ‘a huge mountain’ of mud, from which artisanal gold miners in turn came to extract small quantities of gold.
“As it has been raining heavily over the last few days,” the mayor said, “the rain has seeped deep into this mountain of mud. That’s how it started to crack and caused the landslide.”
In a statement August 20, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Bouar, Mgr. Miroslaw Gucwa, said he learned of the catastrophe with “immense sorrow” and called the incident a “devastating loss” for the victims’ families and the wider diocesan community.
“We mourn the tragic loss of around one hundred of our brothers and sisters, so brutally torn from the affection,” of their families and from “our diocesan family.”
“On behalf of the entire diocesan Church,” Gucwa offered his “deepest compassion and prayers to their families, their loved ones, and all those who knew and loved them.”
“May the Lord welcome them into His peace and into the light of His resurrection,” he said.
Earlier this month, another deadly mining disaster occurred in South Africa.
Fourteen miners perished on August 10, after a disused mine gave way in the Nkaneng informal settlement near Rustenburg and Marikana.
RELATED: South African Bishop says deadly mine collapse exposes deep economic sins
The victims of that disaster were illegally working the site.
Tens of thousands of so-called “artisanal” miners work illegally in disused gold and platinum mines formerly operated by mining outfits, or else dig their own mines in search of deposits, often working without proper safety equipment.
The liaison bishop for the Justice and Peace Commission of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC), Thulani V. Mbuyisa of Kokstad, says writing the victims off as “illegal miners” is a moral failure that allows the true culprits to escape scrutiny.
“Regardless of their nationality, immigration status or involvement in illegal mining,” Mbuyisa tells Crux Now, “these were human beings whose lives had value.”
*Ngala Killian Chimtom contributed to this report from Yaoundé, Cameroon
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