"It was the afternoon of Thursday, January 29 in the eastern Congolese city of Goma. More than 24 hours had passed since Grace Barata's relatives had any word about him. For days, Barata had been in the town of Rubaya, about 60km (37 miles) northwest of Goma, at a mine where he worked. But the day before, news had reached the family that there was a huge landslide and hundreds of people were dead."
"Barata, 35, who began working on the mines in 2012, was one of the rare survivors. Rebel authorities in charge of the town say at least 200 people were killed when the coltan mine in the mineral-rich eastern DRC city collapsed last week. Many victims died of asphyxiation due to a lack of oxygen, while others were crushed by the weight of the earth caving in around them."
"Above the mines of Rubaya are hills that rise steep and green. From the flanks of the mountainside, orangebrown terraces have been carved out, cutting into the slopes. Mounds of mud and rock sit beside trenches filled with murky water. On the slopes on any given day, lines of artisanal miners climb and descend, some with sacks of wet earth slung over their shoulders, others swinging pickaxes into the walls of the pit."
A massive landslide at a coltan mine near Rubaya left scores of miners buried, with rebel authorities reporting at least 200 fatalities. Many victims suffocated from lack of oxygen while others were crushed by collapsing earth. One rare survivor, Grace Barata, returned to his family after being presumed dead; he began working the mines in 2012. Rubaya's steep hills show orangebrown terraces and muddy pits where artisanal miners climb and dig, carrying wet earth and swinging pickaxes. Artisanal miners in Rubaya extract much of the world's coltan while enduring poverty and hazardous working conditions.
Read at www.aljazeera.com
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