Accidents in artisanal mines, SAEMAPE challenges operators on compliance with safety measures

The Assistance and Supervision Service for Artisanal Mining and Small-scale Mining (SAEMAPE), in the province of Maniema, calls on artisanal miners to comply with the instructions issued, in order to operate safely in the mining sites.

In an interview granted Friday, February 11 to Radio Okapi, the provincial director of SAEMAPE, Patrick Kitembo reveals that he has been observing for several months, cases of accidents involving artisanal miners on mining sites causing deaths or serious injuries. . For him, this situation is the result of non-compliance with the instructions given.

“We have enacted a certain number of things that they must observe in particular, there is the work schedule. Work should start at 7 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Also, the fact that they have to avoid working in the rain and they also have to avoid going to work sites at night. We have noted with great regret that all that we know of as accidents on the sites are accidents that occur beyond the hours scheduled for work. And it must be said that at that time, there were no SAEMAPE agents on the sites. And, the mining police who were supposed to take over to protect the mining sites seem practically ineffective”, notes Patrick Kitembo. 

He also deplored, in particular, the fact that most of the victims are illegal and clandestine diggers.

“We also found that most of those who experience accidents are not tidy artisanal miners and sometimes they are people who go to the sites in a state of drunkenness. You will agree with me that, when they work, they do it in haste so that we cannot surprise him. And while the work is done in haste, they cause landslides,” said the provincial director of SAEMAPE.