Central African Republic mine landslide kills dozens, sources say

A landslide at an illegal gold mine in western Central African Republic killed several dozen people on Tuesday, local sources said, while officials warned that a formal death toll had not been established.

The collapse happened in the middle of the day at the Zamboye mine near the border with Cameroon, about 50 kilometres from the town of Baboua.

A local civil servant said around 40 people died at the site. Other local sources said around 100 people had died.

"At this stage it's difficult for us to establish a formal toll," Baboua local official Laurent Ngon Baba said.

Cedric Mbango, a miner at the site, described the incident as catastrophic and said people remained buried while rescue attempts were under way.

Landslides are common in illegal mining operations outside state control in the mineral-rich country. In June, a similar collapse killed several dozen people at the Be-Mbari gold mining site, also on the Cameroon border. A landslide killed seven people at a mine in Ngourroum in March, and another 20 people were killed in February in Gordi.