Rescue efforts were suspended as the mine continued to collapse and recent heavy rains flooded its lower sections.
The Central African Republic has temporarily shut a gold mine near the Cameroonian border after a landslide killed dozens of people earlier this week, the country's mines minister said Thursday.
Rufin Benam-Beltoungou visited the Zamboye artisanal gold mine on Wednesday and put the official death toll at 49, the ministry told AFP.
The minister confirmed this included 34 Central Africans, 13 Cameroonians and two Chadians.
Several local sources have told AFP that around 100 people died, with many still missing and likely buried beneath the rubble.
Seven injured people were taken to hospital in the nearby town of Baboua, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) away.
Security agencies guard mine
The mining site was closed and access to the pit barred on Thursday, an AFP correspondent reported.
Security reinforcements, including personnel from the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, were deployed to the area.
Rescue efforts were suspended as the mine continued to collapse and recent heavy rains flooded its lower sections.
The sprawling open-pit site, known locally as Moscow-RCA, lies beside the Kadei river, which forms part of the border with Cameroon.
The mines ministry said the disaster highlighted the dangers of informal mining operations, "particularly sites with poor safety conditions".
Repeated tragedies
But civil society activist Crescent Beninga said such tragedies were far from rare.
"This is not the first time we've seen a mine collapse," said Beninga.
A similar cave-in at the Be-Mbari gold mine, also near the Cameroonian border, killed dozens of people in June.
"The question is: what have we done to stop this happening again? The answer is nothing," he said.
Videos of the accident seen by AFP showed parts of the wall of the vast mine giving way and burying artisanal miners working below.
Mine collapses are common in the impoverished Central African Republic, where rich gold and mineral deposits are often exploited illegally with little state oversight.
