Heavy human toll following a natural disaster in Burma. After a landslide in jade mines in the north of the country, 113 lifeless miners were extracte

Many dead in jade mines in Burma after landslide

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2020-07-02 10:18:57

Heavy human toll following a natural disaster in Burma. After a landslide in jade mines in the north of the country, 113 lifeless miners were extracted from the mud. Research has been suspended due to heavy rain. “The miners were swept away by a torrent of mud caused by heavy downpours” of monsoon. "So far we have found a total of 113 bodies," wrote the firefighters on their official Facebook page. On this page, photos show a team of rescuers wading in a valley submerged by the mudslide, in the canton of Hpakant, near the Chinese border.

Each year, dozens of miners in search of precious stones are killed in accidents due to perilous working conditions, particularly during the monsoon season. Highly prosperous but unregulated, the mining industry employs many undeclared workers and weighs tens of billions of dollars, according to the NGO Watchdog Global Witness. The open jade mines of Hpakant transformed this remote region into a vast terrain evoking a lunar landscape.

Fatal landslides in the region are frequent, and the victims are often from disadvantaged ethnic communities who operate almost covertly in old abandoned mines. 

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