Kabul, March 30: Two coal miners tragically lost their lives due to gas inhalation in a coal mine located in the Samangan province of Afghanistan on Sunday. According to reports from the Khaama Press news agency, local Taliban officials confirmed that the incident occurred inside a coal mine in the Dara-e-Suf Bala district.
In a statement released on Saturday, the Taliban police command in Samangan stated that both miners died after being exposed to toxic gas. Following the completion of legal procedures, their bodies were handed over to their families for burial. The deceased were residents of Bamiyan and Daykundi provinces.
This incident highlights the perilous conditions prevalent in Afghanistan’s mining sector, where many workers are compelled to operate underground under poor ventilation and minimal safety regulations. The coal mines in Dara-e-Suf are among the most active mining sites in Afghanistan, where fatal accidents have been common due to tunnel collapses, gas exposure, and a lack of emergency rescue equipment.
Mining accidents underscore the significant weaknesses in workplace safety standards in Afghanistan, where economic hardships force many individuals to undertake dangerous jobs without adequate safety measures or oversight.
Local police officials reported that last month, a mining collapse in Nangarhar province resulted in one fatality and another injury. The provincial police headquarters stated that this incident occurred in a sapphire mine in the Mamand Tor Naw area of the Spin Ghar district, where one person was killed and another injured due to debris and rocks. Security forces transported the injured individual to a nearby health center for treatment.
On January 9, at least four miners died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a precious and semi-precious stone mine in the Khash district of Badakhshan.