HARARE, Feb 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – At least 60 suspected illegal gold miners were feared dead in Zimbabwe on Friday after water flooded two disused shafts in a mining town southwest of Harare, government said.
“Following the flooding of the mine shafts …. on the 12th of February, 2019, where an estimated 60 – 70 artisanal miners are trapped,” the President Emmerson Mnangagwa, has declared a “state of disaster”, the minister of local government July Moyo said in a statement.
A government mining engineer Michael Munodawafa told AFP outside the mine that “hope of finding anyone alive is very slim since its happened Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, its almost over 24 hours.”