At least 32 artisanal miners were killed and more are feared missing after a makeshift bridge collapsed at the Kalando copper and cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s southeastern Lualaba province on Saturday. The tragedy unfolded when panic reportedly swept through the site after soldiers, who were deployed to secure the area, allegedly fired gunshots. The resulting stampede saw a rush of miners onto the narrow, improvised bridge over a flooded trench, causing it to buckle under the overcrowding. Roy Kaumba Mayonde, the provincial interior minister, confirmed the death toll of 32 but noted that rescue operations were ongoing. He stated that the informal diggers had forced their way into the restricted quarry despite a formal ban due to heavy rain and the risk of landslides. However, a report from the Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Support and Guidance Service (SAEMAPE) indicated that the gunfire was the catalyst, leading miners to be “piled on top of each other” in the resulting fall. The SAEMAPE report, in fact, estimated the death toll to be at least 40. The Kalando mine has been the centre of a long-standing dispute involving the wildcat miners, a cooperative meant to organize operations, and the site’s legal operators, who are reported to have Chinese involvement. Human rights groups are now calling for an independent investigation into the military’s role in the deadly incident, which highlights the pervasive dangers, lack of regulation, and poor safety standards in the DR Congo’s artisanal mining sector, the world’s largest producer of cobalt.