Race Against Time: Alake Demands Urgent Rescue Push as Sudan Gold Mine Collapse Claims Dozens

By: Ganiyu Olayinka

Dr. Dele Alake, chairman of the Africa Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), is calling on Sudanese and regional authorities to rush heavy excavation machinery to the site of a deadly mine collapse in West Kordofan, warning that rescuers are running out of time to reach survivors still trapped underground.

In a statement signed personally in Abuja on Thursday, Alake described the disaster at the informal Al-Zaraa gold mine near Al-Nuhud town as both heartbreaking and preventable. Early reports suggest dozens of artisanal miners died when a network of interconnected shafts caved in on unstable ground, with many still unaccounted for.

Rescuers Digging with Bare Tools

Alake painted a grim picture of the response effort so far: without access to proper machinery, local teams have been reduced to digging through the rubble by hand. He called for an urgent, pooled response from every available regional and local resource.

“All available regional and local resources must be urgently pooled to deploy heavy lifting and excavation equipment to the Al-Zaraa site to accelerate the search-and-rescue efforts and provide medical care to any survivors,” he said.

He characterised the collapse not as a random accident but as the predictable result of unsafe conditions.

A Lifeline That Turned Deadly

Alake was careful to acknowledge the economic role informal mining plays for communities scraping by amid conflict and hardship, even as he insisted that safety can never be sacrificed for output.

“It is with profound shock, sorrow, and a heavy heart that the Africa Minerals Strategy Group receives the devastating reports of the mine collapse,” he said, offering condolences to the victims’ families and to Sudan more broadly. He went on to argue that sites like Al-Zaraa operate with essentially no structural engineering standards, no protective gear, and no regulatory oversight – a combination he said breeds a dangerous culture of risk.

Beyond the Rescue: A Push for Reform

Looking past the immediate emergency, AMSG used the moment to press African governments toward formalising artisanal and small-scale mining more broadly. The group wants governments to enforce baseline safety standards, roll out technical training for informal miners, and put real regulatory oversight in place, particularly in high-risk, conflict-affected areas where workers are most exposed.

“Human life must always supersede resource extraction. Vulnerable workers operating in conflict-affected or politically unstable regions must be protected from preventable structural hazards,” the statement read, with AMSG reaffirming its broader push for African mineral resources to be extracted and processed with safety, dignity and respect for human life at the centre.