A gold mine in Namorunyang, Kapoeta South County, Eastern
Equatoria State, collapsed over the weekend, killing two miners instantly and injuring
five more.
The deceased included a girl and a pregnant woman who
were at the deep end of the mine, according to eyewitnesses.
According to the Kapoeta Civil Hospital administration,
the health facility received five people with injuries as a result of the
goldmine that collapsed at Namornyang.
One of the four patients being treated by the hospital is
in severe condition and has to be referred for further medicine, according to
hospital matron Grace Bernardino Lowi.
“There was an accident in Nalemor where we received five
patients in the hospital—two died on the spot and five others reached the
hospital,” she told Singaita FM on Monday.
Some of the injured artisanal miners, including Lopeyok
Lolup, Lokor Natabo, Lokor Longokwo, and Lucia Napyem, were contacted by this
media outlet.
They clarified that some of them are only now learning the extraction
procedure, and that hunger is what drives them to extract gold.
Experts believes that the most significant and well-known
locations for artisanal and small-scale gold mining are in South Sudan; these
sites are primarily located in the Central and Eastern Equatoria states'
Kapoeta area, Budi County, and Luri river basins.
An estimated 60,000 miners are employed at 80 sites in
the region, including Nanaknak, Ngauro (Didinga Hills), Napotpot, and
Namurnyang.
The work provides the miners' families with sufficient
income to meet their basic needs.
The dangerous mining technique has claimed several lives.
In July, a gold mine reportedly collapsed in Kapoeta South County on Monday,
killing one woman and injuring two more.