Morogoro — Five people died after a collapse of debris inside a mining shaft at the Kitaita mine in Gairo District, Morogoro Region, according to District Commissioner Japhar Kubecha.
Kubecha said the dead were among nine people who had entered the shaft without authorisation during the night to mine.
The five were locally referred to as wadudu, according to the reports, but the information released by officials did not state the outcome for the four others said to have entered the shaft with them.
Only one of the five bodies had been identified when the reports were published, while procedures to identify the remaining four were continuing. The identified victim was a resident of Kilimani ward in Morogoro Municipality; officials said several of the dead were believed to have come from outside Gairo District.
District authorities are investigating and have appealed to miners to stop entering shafts secretly at night, which they said could lead to preventable deaths. The official accounts describe the collapse but do not give a technical finding on its immediate cause or the regulatory status of the shaft.
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The deaths are the latest to be documented in a series of mining and quarrying accidents. In February, five people were killed when a sand quarry collapsed in Korogwe District, Tanga Region.
On February 5, an informal miner, Feliki Kalesi, 54, died after a bank of the Itembe River collapsed while he was searching for gold in Mlangali village, Mbozi District, Songwe Region.
Songwe Regional Police Commander Augustino Senga confirmed Kalesi’s death and warned against informal mining during the rainy season, when land collapses pose greater risks.
The Mlangali ward councillor then suspended mining in the area and appealed to the Ministry of Minerals to send experts to study and formalise the activity, the broadcaster reported.
The accidents reflect risks documented in a recent peer-reviewed analysis of artisanal and small-scale mining. The study, published in Resources Policy, examined 268 reported accidents in Geita-Shinyanga, Chunya and Mererani between 2009 and 2024, recording 420 deaths and 234 injuries—an average of at least 26 deaths a year across the three areas.
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It identified groundfalls, shaft collapses, falls from height, suffocation, explosives and flooding as common direct causes, and called for stronger regulation and enforcement.
The Mining Commission has also stressed the need for stronger inspection.
At an April 23 training programme for mine managers and chief mine inspectors in Kahama, the Commission said regular inspection reports should help authorities identify hazards early and take preventive action, and stressed that miners’ lives must come before mineral production.
