Updated by Faith Barbara N Ruhinda at 1234 EAT on Tuesday 20 October 2026
The collapse of an illegal gold mine in southwestern Colombia has killed 14 people and injured seven others, local authorities said on Monday.
The accident occurred in the rural Chambero area of Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé municipality, in Nariño Department.
Search and rescue operations have concluded, Nariño Governor Luis Alfonso Escobar said.
Jorge Tovar Castillo, a disaster response official in Nariño, said between 12 and 15 additional miners had been reported missing following the accident.
He said municipal authorities were coordinating the response but noted that communication had been difficult.
Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé is surrounded by dense rainforest and can only be accessed by boat or small aircraft.
In a post on X, Escobar described the gold mine as “informal”.
Informal and unregulated mining is common in rural parts of Colombia, where mining operations often lack adequate safety infrastructure, resulting in frequent fatal accidents.
“At this moment our priority is to save lives, accompany families and guarantee an opportune response to this painful tragedy,” Escobar wrote.
In August, 13 people died in a similar mining accident in the municipality of Policarpa, also in Nariño Department.
-Aljazeera
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