Zamfara Gold Mining Disaster: 9 Dead

No fewer than nine people died after a mining pit caved in on alleged illegal miners in Dogon Daji Village of Ruwan Dorawa, Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State, as two miners dug gold worth N2.3 million two days before the incident. The incident happened at about 5:00a.m yesterday when the miners were digging up gold at one of the mining sites, few metres from Dogon Daji Village.

An eyewitness named Shafi’u Abdullahi told Daily Sun that they were about to observe their morning prayer when some people rushed to the mosque shouting for help. “We rushed to the mining site and found out that the under ground tunnel caved in and we understand that 10 people were inside and we believed they are buried alive.”

Daily Sun gathered that it took the rescuers more than nine hours before they could dig the dead miners out of the collapsed pit. Eyewitness further explained that after they rushed to the site, many of them (rescuer) started using hoes, shovels and all other available objects to rescue those trapped, but they were able to get only one person alive and he was rushed to the hospital in Maru. SOurce