Since the beginning of 2026, at least four landslides are reported to have killed hundreds of people at the Rubaya mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a major global source of coltan . Coltan is widely used in smartphones, laptops and e-vehicles.
An estimated 10,000 to 11,000 miners work in treacherous conditions for as little as a few dollars a day. Image: Reuters.
With the mines currently under the control of the Rwandan-backed group M23, and access restricted to journalists and many NGOs, the true number of casualties remains unclear . Frequent cellular network disruptions have also been reported across the region.
In the absence of reliable on-the-ground coverage, Bellingcat used open source methods to examine statements from the authorities and media reports. Bellingcat confirmed several incidents in which villages were engulfed in the landslide and residents living near the mine were among those killed.
Estimated area affected by M23 activity in 2026, based on ACLED incident data.
Landslide No.1 – January 28
Reports of a deadly landslide killing more than 200 people began appearing in international media in late January and early February.
Three days after the incident, the DRC government made a statement on Facebook outlining that at least 200 people had been killed. They said the landslide was “a consequence of the rampant and illegal mining by Rwanda and the M23/AFC”.
In response, the M23-appointed local governor, Lumumba Muyisa, told Reuters that at least 200 people had been killed, but attributed the landslide to heavy rains.
Landslides are common in small-scale mines, especially during the rainy season, which in Rubaya spans from September to May and peaks between March and April.
According to local journalists, it took several days for the injured to reach Goma due to poor road conditions and cellular network problems. Image: Screenshot from Le Journal Afrique TV package.
Bellingcat cross-checked local media reports against one of the few social media posts about the incident, geolocating the phone footage to a mining pit south-east of Rubaya . In the video, the narrator speaking in Kinyarwanda (the national language of Rwanda, also spoken in eastern DRC) pans from the top to the bottom of the slope. Filmed at a distance, no bodies are visible in the footage.
Left: Layered frames from phone footage . White box highlights the tree line. Yellow box highlights a cluster of buildings. Right: Pre-landslide image from Google Earth Pro (March 14, 2025) with aligned white and yellow boxes.
Satellite imagery captured before and after the first landslide shows how the mud advanced down the slope.
Satellite imagery before (left) and after (right) the first landslide. Affected area highlighted by white box. Source: Planet Labs PBC
Landslide No.2 – March 3
Just over a month later, a second landslide was reported . On Facebook, the DR Congo Ministry of Mines released a statement including a provisional death toll of more than 200 people:
However, senior M23 official Fanny Kaj, speaking to AP , rejected the DRC government’s claims, stating:
“I can confirm what people are publishing is not true. There was no landslide; there were bombings, and the death toll isn’t what people are saying. It’s simply about five people who died,” Kaj said.
The same day the second landslide was reported, another M23 spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka , announced an attack involving “combat drones and heavy artillery”, at a location more than 250km from Rubaya.
Speaking to eyewitnesses at the mines, international media reported a landslide triggered by heavy rains, with no mention of bombings – only of workers buried under the earth.
Bellingcat verified several social media videos of the second incident, in which dozens of people are seen digging for those buried under the mud. The clip below is an edited excerpt that excludes graphic images of bodies.
Edited video clip (left) geolocated to the camera icon (right). The white line (right) shows the camera’s movement as it pans across the slope. Source: Planet Labs PBC, March 26, 2026.
Later in the video, as the camera zooms in on several bodies, the narrator speaking in Kinyarwanda says: “Those you can see here have just been pulled out. These people are dead, but others are continuing to the search operations.”
Due to the low quality of the footage, an accurate body count was not possible.
Bellingcat geolocated footage of landslide No. 2 to the same location as landslide No. 1, shown in the satellite imagery below.
Satellite imagery before (left) and after (right) the first landslide. Affected area highlighted by white box. Source: Planet Labs PBC, Copernicus Sentinel Data / Browser.
M23 did not respond to a request for comment on findings contradicting senior official Fanny Kaj’s claim that no landslide occurred on 3 March.
Landslide No.3 – March 7
Four days later, a third landslide was reported, with estimates of more than 300 people k…
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