Congo pit collapse kills at least 13 - officials

KINSHASA, Jan 6 (Reuters) At least 13 people digging for diamonds were killed in Congo's Western Kasai province yesterday when the pit they were excavating caved in, local officials near the town of Tshikapa said today.

''Yesterday, we dug out 13 dead,'' local mayor Albert Mutombo told Reuters by telephone from the scene of the accident. ''Today we are looking to see if there are any more.'' Mutombo said the accident occurred in Kabikabi, a village on the outskirts of Tshikapa, yesterday morning. Residents worked until nightfall trying to save those buried. Three people working in the 15-metre deep open trench survived.

Mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo has been ravaged by decades of mismanagement and a 1998-2003 civil war that killed an estimated four million people, mostly from hunger and disease exacerbated by the fighting.

Most mining infrastructure has been pillaged or destroyed.

Primitive pit mining is often one of the few ways impoverished Congolese can make a living and cave-ins are frequent.

REUTERS PB HT2222