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A6 WORLD NEWS
Friday 7 July 2023

The death toll from a South Africa gas leak blamed on illegal gold

processing has risen to 17

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME showed the dusty inside
and GERALD IMRAY of the shack and at least
Associated Press four gas cylinders on metal
BOKSBURG, South Africa stands. The footage includ-
(AP) — The death toll from ed what Lesufi said was
a toxic gas leak that au- the cylinder that leaked ly-
thorities blamed on an ille- ing on the floor next to the
gal gold processing opera- shack’s entrance.
tion in South Africa rose to The search teams concen-
17, including three children, trated on an area stretch-
as police removed canis- ing out 100 meters (yards)
ters from a community of from the cylinder to check
closely packed shacks and for more dead or injured
sifted through evidence people, Ntaldi said.
Thursday. Police later began tearing
The leak of what authorities down the shack, and Lesufi
said was a toxic nitrate gas said all gas cylinders were
happened Wednesday removed from the site.
night in the informal Angelo Illegal mining is rife in the
settlement in Boksburg, a gold-rich areas around Jo-
city on the eastern outskirts South African police officers remove gas cylinders used by illegal gold miners in the Angelo hannesburg, where miners
of Johannesburg. Informal Settlement in Boksburg, South Africa, Thursday July 6, 2023. go into closed off and dis-
The three children who Associated Press used mines to search for
died were ages 1, 6 and any deposits left over. They
15, police said. At least 10 p.m. Wednesday as emer- out, lay under a strip of yel- were dark due to a lack then attempt to process
people were hospitalized, gency service responders low police tape cordoning of streetlights, a common some of that gold in se-
including a 2-month-old waited for forensic investi- off the area. The bodies situation in the deeply im- cret, often in makeshift and
baby, two 4 year olds and gators and pathologists to eventually were removed. poverished informal settle- highly dangerous facilities.
a 9 year old, according to do their work. Search teams combed ments found in and around Mining fatalities under-
Panyaza Lesufi, the premier “It’s not a nice scene at all. the area deep into the South Africa’s cities. ground are also common
of Gauteng province, who … It’s painful, emotionally night looking for other pos- Emergency services spokes- and the South African
gave an update Thursday. draining and tragic,” Lesufi sible casualties. Authori- man William Ntladi said the government department
A statement from South Af- was quoted as saying in ties didn’t say if the peo- deaths were caused by the responsible for mining an-
rican President Cyril Rama- news reports as he visited ple engaged in the illegal inhalation of nitrate gas nounced recently that at
phosa’s office said it was the settlement on Wednes- gold processing thought to that leaked from a gas cyl- least 31 illegal miners were
a “devastating and tragic day night. An Associated have caused the gas leak inder being kept in a shack believed to have died in a
loss of innocent lives.” Press journalist saw a foren- were among the dead, but where illegal miners were gas explosion in a disused
Bodies remained on the sic investigator covering police opened a criminal separating gold from rock mine in the city of Welkom
ground, some of them cov- the body of a small child case.Investigators made and dirt. He said the leak in central South Africa in
ered in sheets or blankets, with a blanket. Another their way through narrow had emptied the canister. May. The cause was meth-
for hours after the gas leak body, covered in a white alleys between shacks and Lesufi, the Gauteng pre- ane gas, the mining de-
was reported around 8 cloth with a shoe sticking other makeshift homes that mier, tweeted videos that partment said.q

Dutch museums will return art and artifacts that were looted from

Sri Lanka and Indonesia

By MIKE CORDER of a reckoning with their of- is the first time that, based
Associated Press ten brutal colonial histories. on the advice of the Ad-
THE HAGUE, Netherlands A Berlin museum an- visory Committee on the
(AP) — Two Dutch muse- nounced in January it is Return of Cultural Objects
ums are handing hundreds ready to return hundreds from Colonial Context, we
of cultural artifacts back of human skulls from the are returning objects that

to Indonesia and Sri Lanka former German colony of should never have been
from a richly decorated East Africa. In 2021, France in the Netherlands,” said
cannon to precious met- said it was returning stat- State Secretary for Culture
als and jewelry that were ues, royal thrones and sa- and Media Gunay Uslu.
taken, often by force, in cred altars taken from the The committee was set up
the colonial era. The gov- West African nation of Be- in 2022 to assess requests
ernment announced the nin. And last year, Belgium by countries for restitution
planned restitution of 478 returned a gold-capped of artifacts in state muse-
“cultural objects” Thursday. tooth belonging to the slain ums. It is considering more
In this photo provided by Rijksmuseum on Thursday, July 6, 2023, Some Western nations are Congolese independence restitution requests from
the of the Cannon of Kandy which originated from Sri Lanka is returning looted artifacts hero Patrice Lumumba. Indonesia, Sri Lanka and
photographed.
Associated Press and other objects as part “This is a historic moment. It Nigeria.q