A landslide and tunnel collapse at an unauthorized gold mine in the Central African Republic killed at least 100 people, according to local sources cited around the date of August 18, 2026. Search operations continued at the Zamboye mining site, near the border with Cameroon and about 50 kilometres from Baboua.
The collapse occurred on Tuesday afternoon at a large open-pit site where hundreds of artisanal miners worked. Several local sources put the death toll at roughly 100 and said many other people were injured. Baboua elected official Laurent Ngon Baba cautioned that authorities could not yet establish a formal total, making the figure an early estimate rather than a final count.
At least four of the people killed were Cameroonian, according to the Cameroon Tribune. Survivors were transported to a hospital in Baboua while search teams looked for others. The supplied report did not state how many survivors were hospitalized, how many miners remained missing or what rescue equipment was available at the site.
The Baboua public prosecutor said several underground tunnels where miners were working appeared to have collapsed. A judicial inquiry was opened to determine the circumstances. Social-media video described in the report showed part of the ground at the mining area breaking away and burying people, but the evidence did not provide an engineering assessment of the failure.
Miner Cedric Mbango called the event catastrophic and said the ground gave way over people. Across the border, Cameroon's eastern regional governor, Grégoire Mvongo, said officials were coordinating closely with counterparts in the Central African Republic to manage the aftermath. That cooperation reflected the presence of Cameroonian victims and the mine's border location.
The Zamboye operation was described as illegal and beyond effective state control. Such sites often lack formal oversight, and landslides are reported frequently in the country's artisanal mining sector. The source did not identify the mine's owner or operator, specify whether authorities had previously ordered it closed, or establish responsibility for working conditions.
The collapse followed other fatal mining accidents in the country during 2026. Several dozen people died at the Be-Mbari gold site near Cameroon in June, seven were killed at Ngourroum in March, and 20 died at Gordi in February. Those incidents showed a repeated hazard but did not establish that each collapse had the same cause.
As of the event date, the central facts remained provisional: local sources reported about 100 deaths, survivors were receiving care, and rescuers were still searching. The judicial inquiry needed to clarify the tunnel failure, the number of people underground and who controlled the site. Until that work was complete, both the casualty total and legal accountability remained unsettled.
