Dozens missing and one person killed after Myanmar landslide

Dozens were lost in a landslide in Myanmar, and at least one person died. The shift took place on Wednesday morning (local time) in the Jade mine in the north of the country.

The national rescue team told AFP that 70 people were missing and at least one victim had died. Twenty-five injured were taken to hospital. About 200 rescue workers have been deployed to search for the victims. The fear is that people have been dragged towards a nearby lake.

Ordinary accidents

The landslide occurred near the mining town of Hpakant, where about a hundred mining companies are active. Gemstones are sought from the mines in neighboring China. Jade is mined under appalling conditions and results in widespread deforestation and landslides.

This causes accidents regularly. Came last year More than 160 people He was killed after a landslide near Hpakant. The largest mining disaster in the region occurred in 2000, when a thousand people died when the waters of the Oro River collided with mines.

Army benefits

The Myanmar government tried to better regulate profitable mining, but that ended when the army started in February of this year committed a coup.

according to Human rights organization Global Witness Billions of dollars worth of gemstones are produced each year and the military is one of the parties that benefits from it. Therefore, there is little chance that the reform process will continue under military rule, the organization wrote in a report this summer.