Landslide at Eastern DRC Coltan Pits Kills Over 200, Exposes Supply and Safety Risks

A catastrophic slope failure at small-scale coltan workings near Rubaya in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has resulted in a death toll exceeding two hundred, with dozens more injured and many still believed to be buried under mud and debris. Local witnesses and a spokesperson tied the collapse to heavy rains that destabilised hand-excavated tunnels, which were left unsupported and densely occupied at the time. The pits sit under the control of the M23 armed movement, whose presence since seizing the area has limited formal oversight and complicated rescue and recovery efforts. Survivors have been evacuated to nearby clinics and to Goma for treatment, while search teams continue to clear mud and rubble in difficult conditions. Rubaya contributes a meaningful share of the world’s tantalum—used in electronics and aerospace components—so the incident is both a humanitarian disaster and a supply-chain vulnerability. Artisanal mines in the region are often informal, with parallel tunnels and crowded workspaces that allow a single collapse to propagate across multiple extraction shafts. Reports of child labour and the absence of enforceable safety standards worsen the human consequences and limit immediate prevention options. In the short term, shipments from the site will be disrupted and buyers will face increased pressure to verify traceability and ethical sourcing. Broader implications include a likely uptick in scrutiny from human-rights groups, downstream manufacturers, and regulators demanding stronger due diligence. The event also highlights how non-state control over resource-rich zones amplifies operational and ethical risks for firms that rely on those minerals. Unless coordinated humanitarian aid, mine safety interventions, and governance measures are implemented quickly, similar catastrophic failures could recur across other informal extraction sites in the region.