CONAKRY, July 29 (NNN-AGENCIES) — At least four people including a two-
year-old girl and her mother were killed in a rock slide at a gold-mining
site in northeast Guinea, officials said.
The accident happened on Saturday evening in Kintinian, in the northeast
region of Siguiri, said Mamadi Magassouba, a public figure in Kintinian.
“At least four people perished in the rock slide on the grounds of a good
mine,” he said.
The death toll was confirmed by police and a representative of the local
Red Cross.
Two other injured people were taken to hospital in Siguiri, a city around
600 kilometres north of the capital Conakry, they said.
“The victims were working in an old gold mine banned from use due to the
risks of rock slides” caused by heavy rain, said the Red Cross official.
At least 17 clandestine gold panners were killed in February in another
mine in the region of Siguiri.
Rock slides on gold-mining sites in Guinea are frequent and often deadly.
The Siguiri region alone has more than 20,000 gold panners, according to
official sources.
Guinea is rich in minerals including bauxite, diamonds and gold. — NNN-AGENCIES
