WEBVTT - How the South African Mining Tragedy Unfolded 0:00:02.440 --> 0:00:07.240 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:08.160 --> 0:00:11.080 An attempt to crack down on illegal mining in South 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.160 Africa has ended in disaster. 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:17.960 The total of three hundred and twenty four the extraction 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.400 has been done and out of the three hundred and 0:00:21.440 --> 0:00:23.200 twenty four, seventy eight. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.080 Remm remains or corpses. 0:00:26.560 --> 0:00:30.400 Authorities sealed off shafts at the buffos Fontein gold mine 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.360 in October, hoping to cut off the miners access to essentials, 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:37.400 but it left as many as one thousand people trapped 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:42.040 underground without any access to help. Civil rights groups claim 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:44.600 more than one hundred people have now died. 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:47.440 I've witnessed data, I've witnessed a lot of things, have 0:00:47.640 --> 0:00:50.879 seen hair with my It's like I was in a 0:00:50.920 --> 0:00:53.840 scary movie, but it was reality to me because I 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.280 was there. I was witnessing everything, and then I took risky. 0:00:57.360 --> 0:00:59.440 I told myself, I'm not gonna die under clown. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:03.400 In today's episode of The Next Africa podcast, we'll ask 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:07.840 what's driving people into illegal mining, why the authorities were 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.640 so keen to try and shut it down, and how 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:13.839 this ended in tragedy, with the government forced to back 0:01:13.920 --> 0:01:15.440 down and rescue the miners. 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.240 Then some members of the government are parents to boy 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.240 children and how would they feel if their children were 0:01:22.319 --> 0:01:24.240 underground dying of hunger. 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:32.959 I'm Jennifer's Abasadja and this is the Next Africa Podcast, 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.560 bringing you one story each week from the continent driving 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.280 the future of global growth with the context only Bloomberg 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:46.640 can provide. Joining me this week is Bloomberg stembile Sele, 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:50.200 who's been on the ground at the Bulfha Spontein mine. 0:01:50.360 --> 0:01:50.880 Cimbilee. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:54.160 Thanks so much for joining us, especially considering a lot 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.160 of the work and the reporting that's gone into this. 0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:58.720 So let's just start with a bit of context. How 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:01.960 big of an issue is illegal mining for South Africa. 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.720 So the closest estimates that we have is the potential 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.240 loss or what the Minerals Minister, Guero Mandasha refers to 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:11.399 as a leekal to the economy. 0:02:11.440 --> 0:02:11.960 In fact, he. 0:02:11.919 --> 0:02:13.959 Goes as far as to call it as an attack 0:02:14.000 --> 0:02:16.519 on the economy. But he's saying that in the last year, 0:02:16.639 --> 0:02:20.440 sixty billion iran that's three billion dollars has been lost 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:23.800 as a result of illegal mining. And then where the 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.399 stems from really is a number of abandoned or disused 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:30.679 mines in South Africa is about six thousand in totals, 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:34.320 where you have people going into them and mining independently 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:37.080 or artisanal mining as it's called in some places, but 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.280 in South Africa it's illegal. So it's illegal mining trying 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:42.560 to get whatever it is that they can still extract 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.480 from the earth to sell for money. 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:46.560 And it happens on a number of levels. 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.360 Because I think the first maybe point of context is 0:02:49.360 --> 0:02:52.639 around former miners who themselves were a part of these 0:02:52.680 --> 0:02:54.959 minds when they were active and licensed and so on, 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.040 and so they have a good sense of how things 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.079 are underneath. They know where the sections of the shafts 0:02:59.919 --> 0:03:01.960 are where they're likely to get. 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:03.239 The most minerals from. 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:05.840 And so I think that's the first category of miners 0:03:05.840 --> 0:03:08.840 that we're seeing test. Basically, people that use to work 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:10.919 in minds, they lost their jobs when the minds closed, 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:12.480 and now they're failing to make. 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:14.519 An income in any other way. 0:03:14.639 --> 0:03:17.000 Then you have people that have never mind before, but 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:18.880 they're hearing, hey, there's a bit of a gold rush 0:03:18.880 --> 0:03:21.640 happening underneath the earth. Go and try your luck, and 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:24.519 when you are hungry. The unemployment rate is one of 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:26.960 the highest recorded in the world. It does become a 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:29.640 very real option. And then I think the third category 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:33.119 is given this vacuum that is there, given the lack 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.560 of formalization around artisanal mining, if we could call it that, 0:03:37.080 --> 0:03:40.960 you have these massive cross border criminal syndicates that have 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.120 gotten involved, and their operations are extensive, they're highly armed, 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.440 they're very dangerous. You'll find in these communities where there 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.080 are these abandoned minds and there is this activity, particularly words, 0:03:52.160 --> 0:03:55.280 driven by these syndicates, crime tends to skyrocket in the 0:03:55.360 --> 0:03:57.880 early as well. We've heard horror stories of mass rapes 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:01.320 of women, extreme violence that happens in people's home as 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.040 a results of these syndicates. The other side of it, 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:05.880 and we'll get into this a little bit later on 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:08.000 when we speak about the people that have surfaced from 0:04:08.000 --> 0:04:10.640 this mine, is that there is an element that appears 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:13.960 to be human trafficking where you see people from neighboring 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:18.520 countries mallowing Mosim beacon particular, that find themselves maybe being 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:20.560 called by a relative to say, hey, so and so 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:22.760 is in South Africa. Go and stay with them for 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:24.760 a while. They've got a really good opportunity for you. 0:04:25.120 --> 0:04:26.920 They make their way across the border. Most of the 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.200 time illegally. When they arrive, they told that they need 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:33.520 to go underground and mine for the cold and other precious. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:35.400 Messiles, and they were essentially held hostage. 0:04:35.400 --> 0:04:37.719 They're against their will, they're not allowed to leave, and 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.120 their lives are run explosisively by these syndicates. And so 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:44.560 I think that's broadly the picture of how it's unfolding. 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.680 The other missing elements I think around this is where 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.520 is the market, because obviously South Africa exports all of 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:54.080 its precious metals, and so it's not clear where these 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:57.320 minerals are actually going. But it goes without saying that 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:59.800 they are leaving the ports and the borders of South 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.680 FA and I think that's something that the police really 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:04.640 need to be looking into, because in as far as 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.240 you can't shut down that market, you're going to struggle 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:09.279 to clamp down on this practice for as long as 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.560 you believe that it shouldn't be formulized and should be 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:12.160 done away with. 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.719 It's such a complicated and nuanced picture that you just 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:16.280 painted there. 0:05:16.320 --> 0:05:17.960 You were talking about the police. 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.200 So let's bring in sort of what we've been seeing 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:22.600 over the past few months here in South Africa, and 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:26.320 that's really this crackdown. We saw the authorities targeting this 0:05:26.440 --> 0:05:30.800 Buffa Spontein gold mine. Why this one and what were 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:32.520 they doing to try and shut it down? 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:35.799 So I think for context, this is not the only operation, 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:38.359 and the security forces embarked on what they call on 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:42.360 operation of Islam Quoti, which is the literal Zoo translation 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:44.880 for close the whole. And so they've looked at a 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:48.599 number of disused or abandoned minds where there is this 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:51.719 illegal minding activity taking place, and they've sort of taken 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:53.560 this approach. I think this has just been on a 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:55.880 more larger scale and it's been one of the most 0:05:55.920 --> 0:05:56.560 active that. 0:05:56.480 --> 0:05:58.640 They have taken this project on. 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:03.640 Right, So this particular instance begins in October of twenty 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:04.240 twenty four. 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:07.280 You have police arriving in their numbers and. 0:06:07.240 --> 0:06:11.200 They attempt to close the shaft basically, and what that 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:15.080 looks like in reality is to say, any provisions food, water, 0:06:15.240 --> 0:06:18.599 medication that goes down the shaft, we're stopping that from happening. 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:22.320 We're stopping people from entering the mine already. And so 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:24.400 when you're an illegal miner, the way that it works 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.880 is that you rely on people on the outside to 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.960 bring these provisions to you also to let you inside 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.200 and outside of the shaft. So if there's no one 0:06:32.200 --> 0:06:35.200 on the other side that's assisting you, you are stuck there. 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:37.520 I think something else to bear in mind is that 0:06:37.800 --> 0:06:40.479 they are underground for months at a time. So in 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:42.960 the case of bufore Fontane, there are people that say 0:06:42.960 --> 0:06:46.160 that they've been there since February, so that's almost a year. 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:49.880 And so the police's intention with the strategy really was 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.320 to say you are now forced to come out because 0:06:52.320 --> 0:06:55.120 you have no way of surviving underground, and that's to 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:58.600 look like prohibiting community members or people that they work 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:01.960 alongside these illegal miners from bringing them these provisions. And 0:07:02.000 --> 0:07:05.080 what we've seen is the number of court cases led 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.799 by NGOs that are assisting community members and family members 0:07:08.839 --> 0:07:11.880 of people underground to try and compel the government to 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.760 allow for these provisions to be let down. So the intention, 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:18.040 as I mentioned, is to force people. 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:18.440 To come out. 0:07:18.880 --> 0:07:21.160 And when we look at the setup as it were 0:07:21.200 --> 0:07:24.120 of this particular mind, there's three shafts and the men 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.040 that we're dealing with two of those shafts. It is 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.600 possible for you to come out by yourself without assistance. 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.640 It's not easy, but there's infrastructure, there's a stair wall, 0:07:33.640 --> 0:07:35.680 there's a staircase, there's something that you can hold on to, 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.480 you to drag yourself up the mind that has become 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.400 the death trap where this tragedy is now unfolding. 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:43.000 It's shaft number eleven. 0:07:43.320 --> 0:07:46.320 The difficulty with this one is that it's three klumeters 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:50.080 deep underground. There is no climbing infrastructure, so the only 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.200 way in and out is to be dragged out. And 0:07:53.280 --> 0:07:56.040 so initially, when the police had stopped people from going 0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.119 in and out, the community and family members had taken 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:02.560 it upon themselves to create like a makeshift pulley system 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:04.960 that was made of rope, and so some of the people, 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:07.840 very few that who've seen emerge from this particular shaft 0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:11.440 of the three have been retrieved or extracted in that manner. 0:08:11.800 --> 0:08:14.000 At some point the police came in and they stopped 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.480 even that community driven initiative from taking place, and I 0:08:17.520 --> 0:08:20.320 think so that's how we've seen the sort of escalation 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.000 over the past few weeks where there's no food getting 0:08:23.400 --> 0:08:26.880 two people, particularly in the shaft, and so a number 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:29.600 of them, we believe that number maybeage one hundred by 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:30.520 the end of this week. 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:32.320 Many of them have starved to death. 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:35.280 Some of them all have fall into their death trying 0:08:35.280 --> 0:08:37.240 to make it up that police system when it was 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.000 a possibility. We understand that things got so severe. There 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:43.600 are claims by some of the miners that have been 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.040 able to come up that things got so bad people 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:48.920 were eating cockroaches down there. Some are claiming that there 0:08:48.920 --> 0:08:50.920 were instances of cannibalism. 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:52.040 Of course, we can't confirm me. 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.280 Any of that, but that is the reports and that's 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.439 how people are describing the conditions at Shoft number eleven. 0:08:58.760 --> 0:09:00.640 Stick with us. We come back. 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:04.000 We'll talk about the rescue operation that's finally taking place 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:06.560 and whether or not there's actually going to be more 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.640 crackdowns like this and some of the other mines across 0:09:09.640 --> 0:09:10.160 the country. 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:11.200 We'll be right back. 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:17.000 Welcome back today on the podcast, we're talking about illegal 0:09:17.040 --> 0:09:20.080 mining and how a crackdown on one mine in South 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.360 Africa reportedly led to the deaths of as many as 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:27.000 one hundred miners. Stembulay is still with us and has 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:30.439 been on the scene there, so Stimbulay, the government refused 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.080 at first to help get miners out, as you were 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.839 describing for us earlier, who were the people then that 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:39.760 helped them. Is it some of these NGOs that you 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:40.360 were mentioning. 0:09:40.640 --> 0:09:42.360 So I think this is also what has led to 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.160 the mass of animosity and hostility that is taking place 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.880 between community members, family members, and the governments. In the 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.679 very early days of this operation, where it really wasn't 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:53.880 clear what the setup was and that there was a 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:56.679 shoft where people, even if they wanted to come out 0:09:56.960 --> 0:10:00.320 physically could not, the government took a really tough position. 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.240 We heard the Minister and the Presidency don't have any 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:06.000 saying that government was not going to get involved in 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:09.560 assisting people that were essentially criminals. Of course they've not 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:11.840 been bought at that point before a court of law, 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.120 but they were for all intents and purposes, involved in 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:19.680 criminal activity by participating in this illegal gold mining. And 0:10:19.720 --> 0:10:22.040 so I think that's where the breakdown and the relationship happened. 0:10:22.080 --> 0:10:24.079 And when the government was folding their arms and saying, 0:10:24.480 --> 0:10:26.160 you do what you want, but we will arrest you 0:10:26.200 --> 0:10:28.120 as soon as you come up here, we then saw 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.720 community members coming in and the first thing that they did, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.160 obviously was to fundraise money to try and get food. 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.760 When the court orders did come that temporarily did allow 0:10:36.800 --> 0:10:39.200 for some provision to send down. We saw them putting 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.280 together this Pulley system. On the sidelines of that, we 0:10:42.360 --> 0:10:45.640 also saw court action that was driven by NGOs or 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.560 sponsored by them on behalf of family and community members. 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:50.520 And this is where they were also doing their part 0:10:50.559 --> 0:10:53.319 before the court to try and compel governments to do 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:56.679 something about this. This then comes to a head last 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:00.959 week Friday when an applicant Zinzi Tom is a woman 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:04.040 whose brother is underground at shaft number eleven. She then 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:05.520 went to court and I think this would have been 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:09.079 the fifth court case involving the government in this particular 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:11.880 matter where she was pleading with the court basically to 0:11:11.960 --> 0:11:16.199 force government to assist her. And in that session before court, 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:18.400 government then said, you know what, we don't need to 0:11:18.440 --> 0:11:20.559 carry on with this case. We are happy to reach 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:23.560 a settlement. We are going to assist. And what that 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.599 assistance has looked like is bringing the Minerals Council organization 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.720 on board to provide the twelve million Rand that is 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:32.840 needed to fund this rescue operation. 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.719 They bring the heavy machinery that. 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:37.240 Has basically a cage that goes down like an elevator 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.920 and is able to then extract to bring people back 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:43.880 from this two point eight kilometer put and so this 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:45.240 rescue operation it. 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:46.680 Began on Monday. 0:11:47.200 --> 0:11:49.760 For their part, the government is arguing that at some 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.120 point they did make the realization and it's not that 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:55.200 they were against assisting people, but that they were just 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.600 waiting for the best way to go about it, and 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.559 when that opportunity presented itself, they found the funding, they 0:12:01.559 --> 0:12:03.760 found a plan that would work. They they did embark 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:06.199 upon it. They weren't dragging their feeds. But I think 0:12:06.200 --> 0:12:08.559 the complicated part is it also depends on who you're 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.360 speaking to, because again the Minerals minister Guende Mandesha, he 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.120 is adamant that this is an illegal activity. There's no 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:18.760 human rights element, there's no humanitarian assistance that is required. 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.520 You can't do these things for people that are obviously 0:12:21.520 --> 0:12:24.280 anciently criminals. And so that's the lay of the land 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:27.719 politically speaking. But there really has been then some animosity 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.080 given the stance from government between them and the NGOs 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.199 and community and family members of those who are trapped, 0:12:34.240 --> 0:12:36.240 particularly at Shoft eleven of this mine. 0:12:36.280 --> 0:12:38.840 Before we let you go, stim be like, can you 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:42.600 just describe for us the situation there on the ground. 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:46.000 You spent time there, obviously speaking with authorities but also 0:12:46.040 --> 0:12:48.840 with the community. What can you tell us about some 0:12:48.880 --> 0:12:51.000 of the takeaways that you got from being there. 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.600 I think just incredibly somber. Watching things unfold is kind 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.200 of in the middle of nowhere, It deserted, it is 0:12:58.280 --> 0:13:01.319 extremely hot, and you just see the hub of activity, 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:04.200 so many police vehicles, and I think just the most 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:07.959 chilling thing is really seeing the amounts of Forensic Pathology 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:12.160 Services vehicles that were standing by to gather up the bodies. 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.480 And so even though we're at somewhat of a distance 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.240 from the actual shaft opening, you could see when the 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:21.000 bodies were being extracted and they were loaded into these vehicles. 0:13:21.280 --> 0:13:23.520 And I must just tell you that the smell of 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:28.120 the decomposed bodies was extreme. It stuck to the people 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.320 that had emerged or were rescued from the shaft. Of 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:34.319 the people that we saw are being rescued yesterday and 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.360 the day before, they were extremely young, some young boys 0:13:37.559 --> 0:13:40.520 who were about fourteen fifteen years old, who were nothing 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.120 but skin and bones, given that they'd been underground for 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.640 so long without any provision, and so the scenes really 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:48.560 unfolding there an absolutely horrific situation. 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:50.720 To be watching, and I'm assuming that you're. 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:53.360 A family member or a community member, you have someone 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:54.920 that's underground that you care about. 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:58.280 It is also a really scary moment. 0:13:58.000 --> 0:13:59.760 For you because you're hoping for the best and that 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:01.839 they're be one of the lucky ones that. 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:03.400 Actually emerge still alive. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.160 But there's also those that have given up and have 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:07.600 got in the sense that they're just waiting for a 0:14:07.640 --> 0:14:09.480 body and they just want the closure to be able 0:14:09.520 --> 0:14:11.760 to bury the person that they love. And so yeah, 0:14:11.840 --> 0:14:13.840 I think there's a very somber mood there at the 0:14:13.840 --> 0:14:16.679 before sputeen mine. 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:19.080 And you can read all of our coverage across Bloomberg platforms. 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:23.600 Now here's some of the other stories we've been following 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.960 across the region. This week, the US State Department demanded 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:32.640 that Rwanda stop using GPS jamming equipment in Eastern Democratic 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.640 Republic of Congo, where millions of people displaced by conflict 0:14:36.720 --> 0:14:40.160 are desperate for aid. The jamming and the so called 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:45.320 spoofing is preventing United Nations peacekeeping and humanitarian aircraft from 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.200 flying in the region, the Department said in a statement 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:52.760 on Wednesday. And Gaban's military leader has picked a new 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:57.040 Economy Minister to resolve the Central African oil producers' debt woes. 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:02.960 Mark Domba, an entrepreneur who's studied public administration at Harvard University, 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:06.120 takes the helm of the key ministry after a cabinet 0:15:06.120 --> 0:15:10.680 reshuffle announced Wednesday on the Presidency's Facebook page. The shakeup 0:15:10.720 --> 0:15:14.440 comes days after the World Banks suspended disbursements to Gabon 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:19.280 over arrears of twenty seven million dollars. The OPEC member 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:22.960 also has dollar bonds maturing in June of twenty twenty five. 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.520 And you can follow these stories across Bloomberg, including the 0:15:26.560 --> 0:15:29.200 Next African Newsletter. We'll put a link to that in 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:35.720 the show notes. This program was produced by Adrian Bradley. 0:15:36.120 --> 0:15:38.880 Don't forget to follow and review this show wherever you 0:15:39.000 --> 0:15:43.720 usually get your podcasts. I'm Jennifer Zabasandra. Thanks as always 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:44.280 for listening.