An overcrowded makeshift bridge at the Kalando copper-and-cobalt site in Lualaba province collapsed on Saturday, killing dozens of people and leaving communities in shock. Local officials said rescue teams pulled at least 32 bodies from the flooded pit and continued to search for more victims, while other reports and footage circulating online suggest higher numbers — reflecting the confusion and chaos that often follow disasters at informal mine sites. AP News+2Al Jazeera+2

Witnesses and provincial spokespeople described a panic when miners — many of them informal diggers who had entered the site despite warnings about dangerous, rain-softened ground — rushed across the rickety crossing. Authorities say the bridge fell onto a trench filled with water, trapping people underneath and making rescue efforts perilous. A regional minister and the artisanal mining agency both described overcrowding as the immediate cause of the collapse. Africanews+1

Some survivors and local groups have questioned the actions of security forces at the scene. Officials reported that soldiers opened fire near the site at some point, which witnesses say provoked a stampede and contributed to the fatal crush on the bridge. Human rights and humanitarian actors have urged an independent and transparent inquiry into the sequence of events, including the conduct of security personnel. People.com+1

This tragedy exposes the deep, recurring risks tied to artisanal and informal mining across the DRC. The country supplies a significant share of the world’s cobalt — a mineral essential to batteries and green technologies — yet much of the extraction is done by desperate men, women and children working in unsafe conditions, often outside legal oversight. Rainy seasons, unstable slopes, makeshift infrastructure, and clashing interests between artisanal diggers and larger operators create a pattern in which accidents can rapidly become mass casualties. Al Jazeera+1

Local responders, volunteers and relatives have been digging by hand and using basic tools to try to recover victims and find survivors, while hospitals in the area report receiving a number of injured people, some in critical condition. Humanitarian groups are calling for emergency medical support and for authorities to ensure safe, dignified recovery of the dead — as well as longer-term measures to reduce the vulnerability of communities that rely on informal mining for survival. AP News+1

As the bodies are counted and families search for answers, the human toll is more than numbers: each name recovered represents a household without a loved one, income lost, and a community’s grief compounded by fear. The recurring pattern of such disasters in the DRC has prompted international attention on the supply chains that depend on minerals mined under hazardous conditions — but for those who live beside the pits, urgent steps to protect lives are what matter first: search and rescue capacity, medical aid, accountability for misconduct, and sustainable alternatives to precarious work. Mining Technology+1

What we know (and what remains uncertain)

• Official recovery teams have reported at least 32 bodies recovered so far, with some agencies and on-the-ground reports indicating numbers could be higher. AP News+1
• The collapse followed the overcrowding of a makeshift bridge above a flooded trench at the Kalando site; heavy rains and landslide risk had previously made parts of the site dangerous. Mining Technology+1
• Eyewitnesses and some officials say soldiers fired near the scene, and that the resulting panic may have contributed to the crush; calls for an independent probe have followed. People.com+1

How to help

International aid organisations and local charities working in the DRC are likely to coordinate emergency medical and recovery assistance; donations through trusted humanitarian agencies and pressure for transparent investigations from rights groups can help both in the short term and to reduce future risks.