By Godswill Michael
The Chairman of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG) and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake, has called for an urgent regional rescue operation following the collapse of the Al-Zaraa gold mine near Al-Nuhud town in West Kordofan, Sudan.
Alake made the call in a statement issued on Thursday on behalf of the AMSG, following reports that dozens of artisanal miners were killed while several others remained trapped underground.
He urged regional and local authorities to pool available resources and deploy heavy-lifting and excavation equipment to the site to accelerate rescue efforts.
“All available regional and local resources must be urgently pooled to deploy heavy lifting and excavation equipment to the Al-Zaraa site to accelerate the search-and-rescue efforts and provide medical care to any survivors,” Alake said.
The AMSG chairman expressed condolences to the families and communities of the miners who lost their lives in the incident.
He described the collapse as a human catastrophe that underscored the dangerous conditions faced by millions of informal and artisanal miners across Africa.
“While artisanal mining serves as a vital economic lifeline for communities weathering severe conflict and economic hardship, it must never come at the cost of human dignity and safety,” he said.
Alake attributed the vulnerability of miners at remote mining sites to the absence of structural engineering standards, safety equipment and adequate regulatory oversight.
He noted that the lack of heavy excavation machinery had further complicated rescue operations, leaving survivors and local responders to rely on rudimentary hand tools.
The AMSG called on Sudanese authorities and other African governments to prioritise miner safety and accelerate the formalisation of artisanal mining activities.
Alake also urged governments, regional bodies and industry stakeholders to work together to provide training, enforce basic safety standards and strengthen institutional oversight of informal mining operations.
“Human life must always supersede resource extraction,” he said, stressing the need to protect vulnerable workers operating in conflict-affected and politically unstable regions from preventable structural hazards.
The AMSG said it remained in solidarity with the families affected by the Kordofan tragedy and reaffirmed its commitment to policies aimed at ensuring that Africa’s mineral resources are mined, managed and processed with due regard for safety and human life.