'At least 200' feared dead in DR Congo landslide: govt

A general view of the mine pits and the town in Rubaya on March 5, 2025. [AFP]

The Democratic Republic of Congo's government said on Sunday it feared "at least 200 dead" in a "massive" landslide that struck a militia-held mine in the country's east.

 Since its resurgence in 2021, the M23 armed group has seized vast tracts of the DRC's resource-rich east, capturing the Rubaya mine in North Kivu province in April 2024 with Rwanda's help.

 Scavengers said part of a hillside in the mining zone collapsed on Wednesday afternoon. A second landslide struck on Thursday morning.

 The M23‑appointed governor, Eraston Bahati Musanga, told AFP there were "at least 200 deaths".

 AFP was unable to independently verify a toll.

 The phone network has been down for several days there, and Congolese authorities and civil society groups fled the area when the M23 arrived.

 Information is arriving "in dribs and drabs from motorbike couriers circulating the region", making it difficult to establish an accurate toll, a humanitarian source told AFP.

 The Rubaya mine produces 15 to 30 per cent of the world's supply of coltan, a key component in the production of electronics such as laptops and mobile phones.

 Experts estimate that the M23 makes around $800,000 a month from the mine, thanks to a seven-dollar-a-kilo tax on the production and sale of coltan.

 UN experts also accuse Rwanda -- which denies providing the M23 with military support -- of using the militia to syphon off the DRC's mineral riches.

 Kinshasa on Sunday urged "the international community to fully grasp the scale of this tragedy" which is blamed on "armed occupation and an organised system of looting" by the Rwanda-backed militia.

 Besides containing at least 60 per cent of the world's coltan, the wider eastern DRC is also home to vast reserves of gold and tin.