Jakarta, Indonesia — Rescue teams searched Tuesday for dozens of missing people, digging through tons of mud and debris left by a Landslide that affected a traditional unauthorized gold mining area on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and killed at least 11 people.
More than 100 villagers were digging for grains of gold in the remote, mountainous village of Bone Bolango on Sunday when tons of mud fell from the surrounding hills and buried their makeshift camps, said Heriyanto, head of the provincial Search Office. and Rescue.
According to data released by his office on Tuesday, some 46 villagers managed to escape the landslide, some 23 people were rescued alive by rescue teams, including 18 injured, and 11 bodies were recovered, including three women and a child. of four years. Authorities revised an earlier death toll of 12 after discovering that one of the dead was listed twice. Another 51 people are missing, he added.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari said torrential rains that hit the mountainous district since Saturday caused landslide and burst an embankment, causing flooding to the roofs of houses in five villages in Bone Bolango, which is part of a mountainous district in Gorontalo. province. Nearly 300 houses were affected and more than 1,000 people fled for safety.
Authorities deployed more than 200 rescuers, including police and military, with heavy equipment to search for the dead and missing in a rescue operation that has been hampered by heavy rain, unstable ground and rugged, forested terrain, Afifuddin Ilahude said. , a local rescue official.
“With many missing and some remote areas still inaccessible, the death toll is likely to rise,” Ilahude said, adding that sniffer dogs were also being mobilized in the search.
Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency show rescue personnel using farm tools and sometimes their bare hands, pulling a mud-covered body out of thick mud before placing it in a black bag to take away for burial.
Monsoon rains cause frequent landslides and flash floods in Indonesiaan archipelago nation of more than 17,000 islands where millions of people live in mountainous areas or near floodplains.
Informal mining operations are common in Indonesia and provide a precarious livelihood for thousands of people working in conditions with a high risk of serious injury or death. Landslides, floods and tunnel collapses are just some of the dangers miners face. Much of gold ore processing involves highly toxic mercury and cyanide, and workers often use little or no protection.
The last country serious mining related accident occurred in April 2022, when a landslide crashed into an illegal traditional gold mine in the Mandailing Natal district of North Sumatra, killing 12 women panning for gold.
In February 2019, a makeshift wooden structure at an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi province collapsed due to ground movement and the large number of mining wells. More than 40 people were buried and died.
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