STILFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) – The death toll in a month difference between the police and the miners The number of people trapped while working illegally underground at an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said on Thursday as they declined rescue operation That has pulled more than 240 survivors from deep underground.
The national spokesperson of the police, Athlenda Mathe, said that 78 bodies were taken out of the mine in an official rescue operation that started on Monday, and that nine others were recovered previously. She did not provide details on how those other bodies were recovered. Community groups have said they launched their own rescue efforts when authorities told them last year it would not help the miners because they were “criminals.”
The miners suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration.
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Authorities now believe nearly 2,000 underground miners were working illegally at the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine southwest of Johannesburg since last August. Many of them resurfaced over the past months, police said, and those who survived were arrested.
The police announced on Wednesday that they were ending the rescue operation and they believed that there was no one else underground. A camera would be installed Thursday to make sure, Mathe said. The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and the miners worked up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground.
Mathe said that at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation. Most of the miners are foreign nationals from neighboring countries, the police said.
The South African authorities have been widely criticized for their approach, having cut off food and supplies for the miners for a period last year in an attempt, as one Cabinet minister said, “the smoke out.”
Civil society groups have said authorities have contributed to dozens of deaths, and there are calls for an independent inquiry to investigate what happened.
The police maintain that the miners managed to get out through several different shafts but many refused due to fear that they would be arrested. That has been disputed by groups representing the miners, who say that some of them were caught and left to starve underground.
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Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
