By Simon Lomonyang Adigil
Two artisanal miners have been confirmed dead after illegal gold mining site in Loriwo Village, Lokanayona Parish, Loyoro Sub-county, Kaabong district collapsed and buried them alive.
The deceased have been identified as Kiyonga Longole, (32 yrs), a resident of Kakutatom Village, and Nangiro Lokubal, aged 26, and resident of Logutoo Village, Kotomee Parish in Lodiko Sub-county.
The incident, according to local authorities and police happened on Saturday at round 8:00 PM, when three men reportedly sneaked into a mining pit to search for gold, little did they know that their quest for gold would turn into a tragedy.
According to reports, one of the miners came out to answer call of nature and upon his return, he found that the pit had collapsed, burying his two colleagues.
Gabriel Lomoe Lokol, the deputy speaker of Kaabong district who doubles as the councilor for Loyoro Sub-county, said the survivor whose name was not established by the time of incident made an alarm, which attracted crowds of people.
He added that the incident prompted rescue attempts by the locals, who managed to retrieve the body of Kiyonga Longole while Nangiro Lokubal’s body had not been recovered.
“When the incident happened , locals had to use rudimentary tools likes, spades, hand hoes to retrieve the bodies but they only manage to recover Kiyonga’s body trapped at the entrance of the tunnel”, said Lokol.
Longole’s lifeless body, according to Lomoe Lokol was conveyed to Kaabong General Hospital by the police for postmortem, and will be handed over to the relatives today for a burial,.
Meri Jino, the LCV Chairperson of Kaabong district deep expressed shock over rising number of deaths resulting from gold mine collapse.
He attributed gold rush in the district to biting poverty levels among households with many families struggling to meet daily basic needs like food.
