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Newshour

At least 200 dead in DR Congo mining collapse, authorities say

Newshour

BBC

Daily News, News

4.21.1K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2026

⏱️ 43 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

More than 200 people have been killed in a mine collapse in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, rebel authorities have said.

Women and children were among those mining coltan - a mineral used to manufacture electronics such as smartphones and computers - at the time in the town of Rubaya.

Also in the programme: The search for truth and justice continues after more than three million new documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein are released; we'll hear about the legacy of the Nigerian musician and political activist Fela Kuti, who has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy; and we'll discuss the implications of AI being used to create new forms of life.

(File photo of labourers working at the Rubaya coltan mine in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo March 24, 2025. Credit: Zohra Bensemra/Reuters)

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts.

0:08.9

Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service.

0:12.0

Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Sami.

0:15.1

In a few moments, a deadly accident at a mine in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has killed more than 200 people.

0:22.6

We'll hear from someone who has visited the mine. Also, in about half an hour, another

0:26.4

three million documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

0:30.6

have been released by the U.S. Department of Justice. But lawyers for Epstein survivors

0:34.8

say they are angered that some of their identities have been revealed.

0:39.2

Some of them are completely devastated by the fact that the Attorney General, the Department

0:46.0

of Justice, was supposed to and indicated that they were redacting victims' names, the survivors' names. And yet, today, with the release of

0:58.1

these more than 3 million files, many of the names of my clients who have been Jane Doe for many,

1:05.8

many years, were in fact published. And this is devastating to them, and we have to deal with that.

1:13.5

And we have a report from Minnesota about the Native Americans, whose ancestors were the original

1:19.6

inhabitants of what is now the United States, but who are now being arrested by immigration

1:24.6

officials. We are going to begin, though, in the Democratic Republic of Congro in Central Africa,

1:30.6

where news has been emerging overnight of a large-scale loss of life,

1:34.8

following a landslide at a coltan mine in the rebel-held eastern part of the country.

1:40.2

The DRC is the world's largest producer of coltan, a critical mineral,

1:43.8

which is then processed into tantaluma metal that's used in a wide range of electronic advice, devices from mobile phones to gas turbines.

1:52.2

The mining is primitive. Miners dig huge craters in stream beds to access the coal tan.

1:58.0

It's reported that heavy rains led to the collapse of the mine in Rubio in North Kivu province.

2:03.1

On Wednesday, there are reports that at least 200 people have been killed. And while some of the

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