A mine collapse at the Rubaya coltan mines in eastern Congo has left at least 200 people dead, Congolese authorities said, in an episode that has immediately been contested by the M23 rebel group that controls the site. The collapse took place Tuesday at Rubaya, a coltan-producing area in a part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that has been repeatedly shaken by violence involving armed groups and government forces.
Congolese authorities said the Rubaya collapse occurred on Tuesday and was reported Wednesday, in a statement from the country’s Ministry of Mines. In the same reporting, senior M23 figures disputed the death toll. Fanny Kaj, identified as a senior M23 official, said the information being published was false and rejected the idea that the incident was driven by a landslide.
Kaj said, “I can confirm that what people are publishing is not true. There was no landslide; there were bombings, and the death toll isn’t what people are saying. It’s simply about five people who died.” The M23 dispute also raised questions about the basis for casualty figures coming out of areas where the group controls access.
A miner, Ibrahim Taluseke, described the scale of recovery work at the site. He said he had helped to recover more than 200 bodies from the area, adding that workers were “afraid” but that “these are lives that are in danger.” Taluseke also said, “The owners of the pits do not accept that the exact number of deaths be revealed.”
The Rubaya mines are located in eastern Congo’s mineral-rich region, where armed conflict has repeatedly intersected with resource extraction. The area has been shaped by years of fighting among government forces and different armed groups, including the Rwanda-backed M23 group, whose recent resurgence has increased fighting and worsened an already acute humanitarian crisis.
The story of Rubaya also ties into the broader coltan supply chain. Congo is a major supplier of coltan, an ore used to produce tantalum, which appears in components found in smartphones, computers and aircraft engines. The country produced about 40% of the world’s coltan in 2023, the report said, citing the U.S. Geological Survey.
The report also said more than 15% of the world’s tantalum supply comes from Rubaya’s mines, and that in May 2024 M23 seized the town and took control of its mines. According to a U.N. report described in the same reporting, since M23 seized Rubaya the rebels have imposed taxes on coltan trade and transport, generating at least $800,000 a month.
In recent months, Congo’s eastern region has also remained in focus due to efforts to reach a peace agreement. The report said that in June, the Congolese and Rwandan governments signed a peace deal brokered by the U.S., with negotiations continuing between rebels and Congo, but that fighting continued on several fronts, with civilian and military casualties reported.
The mine collapse came after a similar tragedy reported last month. The reporting said that a similar collapse last month killed more than 200 people, highlighting recurring risks tied to mining operations in a conflict environment where verifying information on the ground can be difficult.