Landslide in Indonesia’s Sumatra Kills 12 at Illegal Gold Mine

After torrential rains, a landslide at an unauthorized gold mine in Sumatra, Indonesia, kills 12 and injures many others.

In Indonesia’s Sungai Abu, a small village in West Sumatra, a big landslide happened on Saturday because of heavy rain that hit an illegal gold mine on Sumatra Island.

This landslide killed at least 12 people.

It all started in the quiet village of Sungai Abu, where people were looking for gold in the hills when a huge mudslide hit them on Thursday.

Some miners were lucky enough to get out, but others had to be saved by the rescue team. Abdul Malik, who runs the rescue team, said that 11 people got hurt too.

At first, people thought 15 had died, but later they found out it was only 12. This was because it was hard to figure out who was missing because of the rough terrain and the fact that the village was hard to get to.

Two people are still missing, thought to be stuck under a lot of mud.

Rescue teams had a tough time getting to the spot because it was a four-hour hike from the nearest town.

The area was also hard to navigate because of the thick mud and debris from the landslide.

Malik said that the locals were not too happy about letting outsiders, like the rescue teams, into their mining areas.

Illegal gold mining is a big problem in Indonesia, with thousands of people working in dangerous conditions that often lead to injuries or even death.

Miners have to deal with landslides, floods, and the risk of tunnel collapses.

They also have to handle dangerous chemicals like mercury and cyanide without the right safety gear.

This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Just last year, a landslide hit a traditional gold mine in Gorontalo province, killing at least 23 people.

There have been other big mining disasters too, like in North Sumatra in April 2022, where 12 women died, and in North Sulawesi in 2019, where over 40 people were buried in a landslide.