Sixty people are believed to have died and over a hundred more to have been injured following an explosion at a storage site associated with a mine at Gbomblora in Poni Province, Burkina Faso, on Monday 21 February 2022. The explosion is thought to have happened at about 2.00 pm local time, at a store used to house explosives and chemicals used in the mining industry, and to have ripped through a crowded market and residential area, flattening houses and uprooting trees.
The gold industry has expanded significantly in recent years, overtaking cotton as the country's main export in 2019. This has included a number of large multinational mining companies running major operations, but also smaller, locally run mines such as Gbomblora. This fast-growing industry has been very poorly regulated, particularly at smaller mines, where reports of poor safety conditions and the use of child labourers are common. This general lawlessness has attracted gold smugglers, who ship metal across the country's borders into neighbouring states without paying any revenue to the Burkinabe government, as well a militant groups, often affiliated to al Qaeda and Islamic State, who both run mines of their own and extort 'taxes' from other miners, as well as carrying out attacks on mines owned by foreign mining companies and others that they perceive as being aligned with the government, foreign interests, or simply rival militia groups. However, the Gbomblora blast happened in an area hundreds of kilometres from any known militia activity, and is thought to have been accidental in nature.
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