At least 107 people were killed in major failure at an artisinal mine on the border with Cameroon.
In the afternoon of 18 August 2026, a large landsldie occurred at an artisinal gold mine at Zamboye (also spelt Zamboï) in the Central African Republic. The landslide was caught on videos that have been widely shared (there are two different angles). Please be aware that it makes uncomfortable viewing:-
I am unsure of the precise location of this accident. It is described as being close to Garoua-Boulaï, which is located at [5.888, 14.550].
News reports indicate that 107 bodies have been recovered to date, but that the toll might be higher.
At first sight, the behaviour of the miners looks odd – there is a huge crowd directly in the path of what is clearly an unstable slope. I suspect though that the videos capture just one of a series of failures. This screenshot is from early in the recorded failure sequence:
It appears to me that this landslide moves onto, and mobilises, debris from an earlier failure, which can be seen in the bottom right hand corner of the image. I would speculate that the failure event(s) captured in the videos might be just one of a series of failures.
Were the crowds trying to rescue people already buried when this recorded landslide occurred?
Of course, this serves to remind us of the horrific dangers faced in artisinal mines, such as the one at Zamboye.