Myanmar landslide: 90 dies at Kachin jade mine
Yangon, Apr 23 (UNI) A landslide at a jade mine has killed at least 90 people in northern Myanmar, witnesses say.
The victims were buried when a vast heap of waste material, discarded by the mining companies, collapsed in Kachin state, Myanmar media reported.
Many of the dead were scavengers living on or near the waste dumps, who search through the debris in the hope of finding fragments of jade to sell.
The state of Kachin produces some of the best jade in the world.
The landslide in Hpakant happened on Saturday, and there are reports of dozens more missing.
A huge rescue operation is underway with the Myanmar Red Cross, the army, police and local community groups all at the scene trying to dig people out of the earth.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said that many of the dead were asleep in huts when the landslide happened.
It is unclear what caused the collapse of the heap of waste material.
Communications with this part of Kachin State are poor and details are hard to confirm.
Many jade mining areas have been turned into a moon-like areas of environmental destruction as huge diggers churn the earth in search of the translucent green stones.
Support Our Journalism
We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism
IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.
Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
