CAPPA urges action on fatalities at mining sites

Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) has called on the Federal Government and state authorities to enforce strict monitoring and regulatory measures against illegal mining activities to prevent more avoidable tragedies nationwide.

The group was responding to the recent collapse of an illegal mining pit within a national game reserve, spanning Gashaka Local Council in Taraba State and Toungo Local Council of Adamawa State.

In the accident, which took place last Wednesday, about 30 gold miners were feared dead in the Buffa zone of the Gashaka-Gumti National Park.

Expressing deep concern over illegal mine camps and collapses across the federation, the organisation stated that the challenges cast doubt on the operational effectiveness of the Mines Surveillance Task Team, and other monitoring outfits designed to regulate such occurrences.

Executive Director of CAPPA, Akinbode Oluwafemi, said: “Despite existing regulations, illegal mining continues to proliferate, revealing serious gaps in enforcement, often at the expense of local communities. Our field investigations have uncovered illegal and abandoned mining camps operated by both local and foreign – often Chinese – interests in states like Nasarawa, Osun and Ekiti, among others. Artisanal miners, primarily impoverished locals and vulnerable groups, such as women and children, risk their lives digging as deep as 200 feet with nothing but shovels and minimal safety measures and equipment.

“This unregulated extraction not only facilitates the plunder of communal resources, but also leads to severe environmental degradation, leaving behind hazardous open pits that endanger not only the miners but the broader community alike.”