At the moment, it is not excluded that there are other victims of the accident, because the rescue work continues and the removal of the mountain of mud that buried the improvised miners is not finished.

The police commander in the area, Patrick Mwakio, who was on the scene as soon as he was informed of the tragedy, told the press that the victims did not even have time to understand what was happening to them.

Those who died in the avalanche were working illegally because for weeks the Ministry of the Interior had banned prospecting and extractive activities in the area affected by the downpours that have hit this and other East African countries and had caused hundreds of deaths, tens of thousands of displaced people and the destruction of houses and crops.

Months ago, at the height of the downpours, the town of Hillo was the scene of clashes between illegal miners for the control of more promising areas, which left a trail of seven deaths.

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