At least 32 miners killed in incident in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo.

At least 32 people have died, with some sources giving a larger number of 49, following the collapse of a makeshift bridge at a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The incident happened at the Kalando Cobalt Mine in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Saturday 15 November 2025, following an incursion at the mine by wildcat miners. The mine was closed at the time following heavy rains, which had led to concerns about the danger of landslides, but like many mines in the area is prone to incursions by informal miners, who take advantage of any suspension of regular activities. 

On this occasion the miners had entered the mine via bridge over a flooded trench to enter the site. However, soldiers who had been deployed to guard the mine fired upon these miners, injuring two and causing a panic which led to a large number of people trying to cross the bridge at once. While this was happening one of the walls of the open pit mine collapsed, with the subsequent landslide hitting the bridge.

The moment a landslide hit a bridge covered at a mine in Lualaba Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. AlJazeera. 

Informal artisanal mining is common in many parts of Africa, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, which like may other countries has granted concessions to mining companies in areas where small-scale artisanal mining has traditionally helped to supplement the incomes of subsistence farmers. However, little of the money from such projects tends to reach local communities, which often leads to ill feeling and attempts to continue mining clandestinely, often at night or under other unfavourable conditions, which can put the miners at greater risk.

Artisanal miners at the Kalando site that until 2018, they had been free to operate as they pleased, but since that time the site had been taken over by a company with links to the family of President Felix Tshisekedi, as well as Chinese business interests. The Congolese Government claims that it has tried to exclude untrained miners from the site precisely because it feared an incident of this type.

Cobalt is a critical component of lithium batteries, which are used in technologies such as mobile phones and electric cars. The Democratic Republic of Congo is the world's largest producer of cobalt, but the industry is notoriously unregulated, with repeated reports of widespread forced labour, often of children, of workers being exposed to hazardous chemicals, and environmental destruction. Most of the extracted cobalt is exported to China, where it is used to manufacture electrical goods. 

See also...