Late last year, a specialized camera was lowered into an almost 1.6-mile-deep mineshaft in South Africa where hundreds of miners were reported to be trapped and starving.

In mid-January 2024, over 1,000 hunger-weakened miners exited two abandoned mine shafts in Stilfontein, near Johannesburg in South Africa. They had been starved out by the police in Operation Vala Umgodi—meaning "plug the hole"—which had cut off food and water in an effort to "smoke out" a shadow workforce.

Rights groups are criticizing South Africa’s government for failing to prevent what they call a “massacre” at the Buffelsfontein mine, after security officials cut off food, water, and other essential supplies to miners trapped underground and delayed a rescue operation.

South African police say a suspected illegal gold mining ringleader escaped from custody with help from police officers about a week after resurfacing from a disused mine in South Africa where 246 survivors were rescued and 78 bodies were retrieved last week.

The prospectors were trapped underground for months as police, on orders from South Africa’s government, attempted to starve them out.

The South African government has launched a rescue operation at an abandoned gold mine in the country’s North West province, where at least 109 men have died, a group representing the miners said, after local authorities cut off vital supplies in a dramatic bid to crack down on the country’s illegal mining trade.

Rescuers and volunteers have pulled at least 78 dead miners and more than 160 survivors from an abandoned South African gold mine

A gang leader suspected of running illegal gold mining operations in South Africa has escaped police custody. An investigation and manhunt have been launched to find him and those who helped him get away.

Arguing that the miners had entered the mine without permission, authorities reportedly cracked down by cutting off their access to food and water.

South Africa's police have launched a manhunt for an alleged "kingpin", who is accused of controlling operations at an abandoned gold mine where 78 corpses were discovered last week. The police force said officials had helped James Neo Tshoaeli, a Lesotho national also known as Tiger, to escape after he was pulled up from the mine in Stilfontein.

A suspected gang leader known as "Tiger" escaped with the help of South African police after being pulled from an illegal gold mine last week where at least 78 miners died, the police said on Monday.