Wives and other relations of the over 300 illegal miners reportedly trapped in a mine shaft belonging to multinational mining giant AngloGold have besieged the site carrying for them to be rescued.

A video shared by UTV showed several people, predominately women, crying behind a fence where they claimed their husbands and family relations had been trapped.

"God help us! God help us! God give them strength for us, give them strength for us," some of the women can be heard saying as they cried uncontrollably.

One of the women who spoke in the video indicated that she could no longer contact her husband.

She said her husband had been trapped for several hours and might be on the brink of dying.

"I have not been able to speak to him; his phone is switched off. They are weak; they have starved for hours, so they are just lying in the mine," she said in Twi.



Background:

Hundreds of illegal miners are trapped in a mine shaft belonging to multinational mining giant AngloGold.

The incident, according to a Citinewsroom.com report, occurred at AngloGold's Obuasi Mines at Anwiam in the Obuasi East District of the Ashanti Region.

The miners are said to have entered the underground shaft in search of gold deposits but have been trapped because all exit routes were subsequently shut.

One of the illegal miners, Ali Tijani, who spoke to Citi News, said some of his colleagues are unconscious as they have run out of food and water, the Citi News report stated.

The trapped contingent, reportedly numbering 300, are appealing through their families to the AngloGold authorities to intervene and rescue them from the shaft.

The company has not commented on the issue yet, and have also not responded to GhanaWeb's request for information on the development.

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