A 37-year-old sand miner, Dickson Niwamanya, has been buried alive, in a tragic incident at a mining site along the Kabale-Katuna road.
According to ASP Elly Maate, the Kigezi police spokesperson, Niwamanya was mining sand at Bukaranga cell when the soil collapsed, covering and killing him instantly.
“The deceased had been involved in sand mining for a long time, and on that fateful day, he went to the site with another person, who alerted his brother, Matsiko Julius, about the incident,” ASP Maate said.
The police were informed, and a team of homicide detectives visited the scene, but due to the late hour, they decided to handle the matter the following day. However, local residents retrieved the body and placed it in an open ground.
The police revisited the crime scene the next morning with a police surgeon, examined the body, and handed it over to the relatives for a decent burial.
ASP Maate urged sand miners to prioritize their safety, saying, “We condole with the family of the deceased, and we remind all sand miners to take necessary precautions to avoid such tragic incidents.”
The incident has raised concerns about the safety of sand mining in the region, and authorities have promised to investigate and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
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