collapsed gold mine where the body of the South Sudanese refugee was recovered - courtesy

A 35-year-old South Sudanese refugee woman has died in Uganda’s Imvepi Refugee Settlement in the West Nile Region after a gold-mining site collapsed on her and her sibling on Sunday.

According to Obedi Opoko—the younger brother of the late Susan Unyiyo—his sister was attempting to mine gold in a bid to support her children, following a reduction in humanitarian assistance.

In an exclusive interview with Eye Radio this morning, Opoko confirmed that two sisters were involved in the incident.

One died instantly, while the other survived and is currently receiving treatment at the Imvepi camp.

Susan Unyiyo, a mother of several children, had turned to gold mining as a source of income after aid cuts by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and World Food Programme (WFP).

“They were actually hustling, looking for gold, and then the soil fell on them. Two of them. One passed away. This happened in Imvepi camp, near a church called Vranige. Yesterday, the body was brought to the church. She was around 35 years old,” he said.

Reports from Ugandan media indicate that many refugees in the Imvepi settlement have resorted to informal gold digging along the Ore River using rudimentary tools and without safety equipment.

Aid reductions from UNHCR and WFP have left many families without basic support, pushing refugees into dangerous survival strategies such as unregulated mining.

The digging usually involves open pits—typically measuring 3×3 or 3.5×3.5 meters wide—that are highly unstable and pose serious risks to untrained workers.