JAKARTA, Indonesia. Rescue workers in Indonesia are frantically digging through tons of mud and rubble in search of dozens of missing people after a devastating landslide struck an unauthorized gold mining area on Sulawesi Island, killing at least 23 individuals.
The disaster occurred on Sunday in the remote and hilly village of Bone Bolango, where over 100 villagers were scouring for grains of gold. Tons of mud cascaded down the surrounding hills, burying their makeshift camps. Heriyanto, head of the provincial Search and Rescue Office, said, “Improved weather allowed us to recover more bodies.” Heriyanto, like many Indonesians, goes by a single name.
As of Tuesday, rescue teams had recovered 23 bodies, including three women and a 4-year-old boy. Heriyanto’s office reported that 66 villagers managed to escape the landslide, 23 were rescued alive, and 18 of them sustained injuries. Around 35 people remain missing.
National Disaster Management Agency spokesperson Abdul Muhari attributed the landslide to torrential rains that had battered the mountainous district since Saturday. The rains triggered the landslide and broke an embankment, causing floods that submerged houses up to their roofs in five villages within Bone Bolango, part of the mountainous Gorontalo province. Nearly 300 houses were affected, and over 1,000 people fled for safety.
Authorities have deployed more than 200 rescuers, including police and military personnel, equipped with heavy machinery. However, the rescue operation faces significant challenges due to ongoing heavy rains, unstable soil, and the rugged, forested terrain. Local rescue official Afifuddin Ilahude warned, “With many missing and some remote areas still unreachable, the death toll is likely to rise.” Sniffer dogs have been brought in to aid the search efforts.
Videos released by the National Search and Rescue Agency depict rescue personnel using farm tools and their bare hands to extract mud-caked bodies from the thick mud, placing them in black bags for transport to burial sites.
Monsoon rains frequently cause landslides and flash floods in Indonesia, an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands where millions reside in mountainous or floodplain areas. Informal mining operations are widespread in the country, providing a precarious livelihood to thousands who work in highly dangerous conditions. These miners face hazards such as landslides, flooding, tunnel collapses, and exposure to toxic substances like mercury and cyanide, often with little to no protective equipment.
Indonesia’s last major mining-related accident occurred in April 2022, when a landslide hit an illegal gold mine in North Sumatra’s Mandailing Natal district, killing 12 women searching for gold. In February 2019, a makeshift wooden structure at an illegal gold mine in North Sulawesi province collapsed due to shifting soil and numerous mining holes, burying and killing more than 40 people.
As rescue efforts continue in Bone Bolango, the community and the nation mourn the tragic loss of life, hoping for a swift recovery of the missing and a long-term solution to prevent such disasters in the future.
Gary P Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
