This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
Residents of the Kachin state region reported on Monday that a sinkhole at a Myanmar jade mine had swept over a village, and that 12 people had been confirmed dead and dozens had been missing. This was the most recent disaster in the uncontrolled sector, where scores of people had died annually.
The clay swept through Sa Paut community in Hpakant town before dawn on Monday, after a lake full of jade-mining fluid overflowed, people said.
The body of four kids and eight people had been found by later morning, but lots were missing, people said.
The damage was even worse when everyone was sleeping at night, according to a Hpakant tenant.
By 11:30 this day, eight body had been discovered, but there might be more.
About 50 homes, according to residents, were covered in mud, and numerous villagers had joined a recovery efforts.
The crisis highlights poor safety practices in the Hpakant region, where, according to the U.K.-based rights organization Global Witness, almost 400, 000 individuals rely on scavenging for precious stones, the majority of whom are employed in unsafe conditions.
Since the army overthrew an elected authorities in a February 2021 coupd’etat, the monitoring of mine activities has grown worse in Myanmar.
The Hpakant region has been captured by the anti-junta Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, which relies on the mining of stone, as well as exceptional rocks and silver, and their , export , to neighboring China, to fund its armed , campaign , for self-determination.
Colonel Naw Bu, a spokeswoman for the KIA, claimed that the KIA had tried to improve situations at the jade mine but had had little luck.
Not’Neither liquid nor good’.
There’s no credible count of people killed in Myanmar’s mine but injuries are all too frequent.
In a disaster at the Wai Khar jade mine page in Hapkant in 2022, more than 190 individuals died. Dozens have been killed in , rare-earth mine accidents , in Kachin position over the past year.
According to reports compiled by RFA, about 600 people were killed between 2008 and 2024 in more than 10 mudslides in Hpakant town. Some deaths come undetected.
Another Hpakant native claimed that an old stone mine’s water supply piled up as a result of the disaster on Monday.
The next native, who likewise declined to be identified for health reasons, claimed that “rainwater builds up as there is no place for it to flow.”
When the heavy pit’s lip can’t take any more pressure, it flows downstream and is neither liquid nor reliable.
Bombing causes 8 fatalities.
At least eight people were killed and several were hurt on Monday when the government’s air pressure bombed San Hkar and Ma Sut Yang, residents told RFA.
In Kachin country’s Tanai town, 15 people were killed in an air raid on a silver me on Saturday, residents in the area said.
RFA tried to phone the government’s official for Kachin state, Moe Min Thein, for details on the position but he did not answer.
