Myanmar mine disaster
YANGON — The death toll from a landslide at a jade mine in northern Myanmar rose above 170, with more feared dead, authorities said on Friday as search efforts continued for a second day.
More bodies were recovered from the mine site in Hpakant, Kachin state, on Friday, bringing the death toll to 172, according to figures released by the Myanmar Fire Service Department, which coordinates rescues and other emergency services.
It said that 54 injured people were taken to hospitals, and an unknown number of people are feared missing.
Jade mining also plays a role in the decades-old struggle of ethnic minority groups in Myanmar’s borderlands to take more control of their own destiny. The most detailed estimate of the jade industry said it generated about $31 billion in 2014.
Hpakant is a rough and remote area in Kachin, 950 kilometers north of Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon. Triggered by monsoon rains, the landslide occurred at a mining site in the village of Sate Mu in Hpakant at 8 am on Thursday.
A 304.8-meter cliff wall collapsed into a tailings pond at the mining site, according to the Military True News Information Team.
A crowd gathered in the rain around corpses shrouded in blue and red plastic sheets placed in a row on the ground on Thursday at the site.
Emergency workers had to slog through heavy mud to retrieve bodies by wrapping them in the plastic sheets, which were then hung on crossed wooden poles shouldered by the recovery teams.
As photos of the dead circulated on social media, Facebook users began to identify workers hundreds of kilometers from home, leaving moving tributes to friends and family members.
“Please bring my father back,” said Hnin Wati. “A daughter’s heart is breaking.”
But half of the victims were yet to be identified on Friday. Many were migrants who were living in small tents beside the mine, said Thar Lin Maung, an information ministry official.
A ceremony was held on Friday to give financial aid to the families of the victims. About $80,000 had been donated by the regional government, industry group Myanmar Gems and Jewelry Entrepreneurs Association and one mining company.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was deeply saddened by the reported deaths of so many people in the disaster, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
The UN chief expressed his deep condolences to families of the victims and to the people and government of Myanmar. He reiterated the readiness of the organization to contribute to ongoing efforts to address the needs of the affected population, Dujarric said.
The landslide’s death toll surpasses that of a 2015 incident that left 113 dead and was previously considered the country’s worst. In that case, the victims died when a 60-meter-high mountain of earth and waste discarded by several mines tumbled in the middle of the night, covering more than 70 huts where miners slept.
Please bring my father back. A daughter’s heart is breaking.” Hnin Wati, a girl whose father died in the landslide