Six miners perish in landslide

A landslide Tuesday evening at Nyagisozi mining site in Busogo Sector in Musanze District, killed six people who were illegally mining wolfram and cassiterite. Five of the bodies have been recovered and one person rescued. The incident occurred on at the mining site which had been abandoned by MINECA cooperative, and the site had been blacklisted as dangerous. The deceased were identified as Ananias Mbitse 53, Pierre Nayigiziki 33, Bernard Nibamwe 29, and two other teenagers only identified as Muhire and Nzafashwanimana both 14 years old. 27 year old Maniraguha who was rescued is admitted at Busogo Health Centre. According to the Sector Executive Secretary, Jean Damascene Iyamuremye, all the victims were residents of Kavumu cell. The deceased were buried on Wednesday afternoon. “We had forbidden people from mining in those risky sites. We banned MINECA for failure to ensure security of the miners, but people sneaked into this site and unfortunately died,” Iyamuremye, told The New Times. He said that there was continuous sensitization on the dangers of illegal mining which has resulted in many deaths and is attributed to local business people who pay residents to search for minerals without regard to their safety. Ends

National

Six miners perish in landslide