Four dead after Buhweju gold mine caves in
Men mine gold in Buhweju District. PHOTO/ZADOCK AMANYISA
What you need to know:
- The RDC said “the deceased were artisanal miners carrying out the activity illegally at around 5pm on Friday when the incident occurred.”
At least four people died on December 9 after a gold mine caved-in at Runengo Village, Runengo Parish in Buhweju District’s Bihanga Sub County, according to authorities.
On Saturday, the Buhweju Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Nicholas Nuwagira told Monitor that they identified the dead as Mathias Saturday (28), James Nuwagaba(25), Baturaine Anatori(25), all residents of Buhweju District) Venansio Mbaga (20) from Ibanda District.
The RDC said “the deceased were artisanal miners carrying out the activity illegally at around 5pm when the incident occurred.”
Mr Nuwagira added that “the accident was expected since the area has been receiving torrential rains while miners refused to adhere to warnings and guidelines issued by authorities.”
“We have been sensitizing these people to halt mining during heavy rains to prevent such accidents from occurring but they refused to take the precautions. You can imagine because these guys are mining illegally, they even mine at night when they know we are seeing them. We have been in running battles asking them to restore the pits but they have not. All these put their lives at risk because they and their animals are losing lives,” he observed.
Mr Nuwagira has now called for enough police man power to avoid such incidents.
“Following the merging of police posts, we no longer have manpower. Even the mineral protection police is not enough to do the needful as far as preventing illegal activities is concerned,” he remarked.
The Buhweju District United Miners Cooperative Society Limited Chairperson Deus Beinomugisha told Monitor on Saturday that the victims of the incident were not known as miners in the district.
“It is so unfortunate but they have not been operating under us. The biggest challenge that we have is that these people are ignorant of the law. Even when we try to sensitize them, they think we are their enemies. Such accidents can be minimized if miners are doing the business in a legal manner,” he said.
According to RDC Nuwagira, five artisanal miners have died on duty in a space of one year in Buhweju District.
