Mine Rescue Blocked by Terrain and Armed-Group Risk

At least nine people died Monday when a landslide hit a gold mine in southwestern Colombia. An unknown number of workers remained trapped, and rescue teams struggled to reach the remote site. Officials estimated about 30 people were working there. The death toll may rise, Vanguardia reported, but authorities haven’t confirmed how many people were affected or determined what caused the collapse.

Residents Move First

Residents and emergency workers began searching for victims after the mine collapsed Monday morning in El Chambero, a rural community in Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé, in Nariño department near Colombia’s Pacific coast. The search now depends on reaching the remote site, where workers may still be trapped.

Firefighters and Civil Defense personnel joined the effort. Regional authorities coordinated assistance with the Colombian military, while Colombia’s Ombudsman’s Office called for an urgent response. The office requested military aircraft to rescue victims and transport injured people. It also urged authorities to activate nearby hospitals and consider sending the Benkos Biojó hospital ship, stationed in Guapi, to provide medical assistance.

Residents started searching alongside emergency workers. The wider rescue effort, though, depends on official agencies gaining access they haven’t yet secured. The available account identifies no other community-led response or mutual-aid organization. It describes a search under difficult conditions, with authorities coordinating from outside the mine site while people await rescue.

Access Held Up by Terrain and Security

The National Mining Agency said difficult terrain and security conditions kept its specialized rescue teams from reaching the mine. The agency said it had prepared to assist as soon as it learned of the emergency, but access problems and public-order conditions had prevented its mining rescue team from arriving. It remains ready to provide technical and operational support once security conditions allow rescue teams to enter.

The agency reported a landslide at a gold mine in the rural Bellavista area of Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé, saying officials hadn’t confirmed the number of people affected. The rescue account places the collapse in El Chambero. Authorities haven’t released a confirmed list of victims, and the cause remains unknown.

The Ombudsman’s Office warned that illegal armed groups could put rescue workers at risk and called for safe access to the mine. Four days before the landslide, Colombian military forces reported an operation in Santa Bárbara de Iscuandé involving members of a dissident faction of the former FARC guerrilla group. Two minors were recovered, two adults surrendered, and troops seized weapons, Caracol Radio reported. The report doesn’t say the military operation caused the landslide or that anyone involved was connected to the mine.

Officials Coordinate; Workers Wait

Alex González, Nariño’s secretary of peace and human rights, confirmed the preliminary death toll to Noticias Caracol. Officials supplied the estimate of about 30 people working at the mine, while the number trapped remains unknown. Families and rescuers face an incomplete accounting as authorities try to organize access and medical support.

Officials have described a response involving aircraft, hospitals, a hospital ship, military coordination, and specialized rescue teams. Yet the National Mining Agency says its team can’t reach the site under current terrain and security conditions. Residents and emergency workers have begun searching, but authorities haven’t established what caused the collapse or confirmed who is among the victims. Workers remain trapped at the mine, and the rescue teams still struggle to reach them.