South African rescuers are trying to save hundreds of illegal miners trapped underground in an abandoned shaft for months, according to AP News.
At least 18 bodies and 26 survivors have been recovered from the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine since Friday. However, rescuers believe more than 500 miners are still underground.
Authorities began displacing miners in November. As a result, a mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, has become the site of a standoff between police, miners and members of the local community.
Large groups of illegal miners often go underground for months, dragging water, generators and other equipment. To make mining as efficient as possible, they also leave some members of the group on the surface to deliver additional supplies.
Human rights groups claim that police are blocking miners’ access to food and water. Apart from hunger and thirst, many diggers are dying as they cannot get out because the mine is too steep and the ropes they used to get in have been dismantled.
The mine with its labyrinth of tunnels extends 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) deep. However, the trapped miners are too exhausted to climb back to the surface, activists say.
A spokesman for the Mining Affected Communities United in Action group said “a minimum” of 100 miners had died. Meanwhile, South African Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni declared in November that the government would not assist those it deemed “criminals.”
We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out.
