Dozens of local volunteers have stepped up to help rescue what could be thousands of miners feared trapped underground in an abandoned gold mine in the town of Stilfontein in South Africa. Some of the miners had initially refused to come up because they were working illegally and were concerned about arrest or possible deportation. Any rescue operations are likely to be hampered by the mine’s narrow and unstable tunnels that require advanced equipment and expert teams. “We’ve seen in the past few hours volunteers with the community who have come here with ropes and harnesses. “If you just close it, for me, it means just burying whoever is underground,” he told Al Jazeera.

Source: The North Africa Journal November 16, 2024 13:02 UTC