A heavy death toll has been reported following the collapse of an artisanal gold mine on Tuesday, August 18, at around 2 p.m. local time, at the Zamboi mining site straddling the border between Cameroon and the Central African Republic, not far from the Cameroonian town of Garoua-Boulai and the Central African town of Baboua.
According to the mayor of Garoua-Boulai, Amadou Abdon, 107 bodies had already been pulled from the rubble by Tuesday night, around 11 p.m., just hours after the disaster. The figure, given by phone to local journalists, has since been picked up and confirmed by several local and international sources. Authorities and relatives of the victims fear the toll could still rise in the coming hours. Search and recovery operations were continuing on Wednesday, made especially difficult by the terrain: debris is being cleared by hand, since heavy machinery could trigger the collapse of galleries that are still intact.
Beyond the deaths already recorded, dozens of injured people have been treated and taken to nearby health facilities, including the hospital in Baboua. An unknown number of miners are also believed to still be trapped under earth and debris, raising fears that the final toll could be far higher than early estimates suggest. Videos of the accident circulating widely on social media show a large section of ground giving way at the top of a vast open pit, burying dozens of gold panners who were digging below, most of them informal, unauthorized miners.
According to the Baboua prosecutor’s office, which has opened a judicial investigation, the collapse was caused by the caving in of several underground tunnels where miners were working at the time. The Zamboi site covers several hectares on both sides of the Kadei River, which marks the border between the two countries. Multiple sources say the collapse occurred on the Central African side of the deposit.
This kind of accident is unfortunately not new to the region. In mid-June, a similar collapse killed dozens of people at the Be-Mbari gold site, also located on the Cameroon-CAR border. Artisanal mining sites in this area typically operate with little to no technical oversight, with tunnels dug quickly and without adequate support, leaving hundreds of diggers exposed to repeated collapse risks. Cameroonian and Central African authorities say they are working together to manage the aftermath of the disaster, though no concrete measures have yet been announced to prevent further tragedies at this site or others like it in the region.
