Rescue teams are frantically digging through rubble after a gold mine near the town of Kamituga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo collapsed, trapping dozens of miners. The cave-in happened amid torrential rain at about 15:00 local time, and local officials believe that most of the estimated 50 people feared dead are young people, are calling for 2 days of mourning, and are requesting help from locals to retrieve bodies. Local media groups reported that currently, only one person is confirmed to have been rescued. On the other hand, Alexandre Bundya, the mayor of Kamituga, said that the exact death and injury tolls are still unknown, and that some of the trapped may be rescued.

Theo Ngwabije Kasi, the local governor of the South Kivu province expressed his condolences to the families and friends of those presumably dead in the collapse. Mining accidents in the resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo are not uncommon, as dozens of miners are reported killed at work each year.

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