GUSAU, Nigeria: Rescuers in Nigeria are searching for dozens of people missing after a boulder crashed onto an illegal mine during heavy rains, killing at least 18 people, local sources told AFP on Saturday.
The rock came crashing down on Thursday on the mine in the northern Zamfara state outside the Kadauri village in the Maru district, they said.
“We have managed to pull out 18 dead bodies from the pit and five other survivors who sustained various degrees of injuries,” Sani Lawwali, a miner who works in unauthorized pits, said from Kadauri.
A dozen other miners were still trapped inside and their fate remained unknown, said Lawwali, who took part in the rescue effort.
“The process is slow and laborious as we use our bare hands to chisel the end of the boulder to make holes for limited access into the pit,” he said.
