Standoff in South Africa ends with 87 miners dead and anger over police's 'smoke them out' tactics

STILFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) — The death toll in a monthslong standoff between police and miners trapped while working illegally in an abandoned gold mine in South Africa has risen to at least 87, police said Thursday. Authorities faced growing anger and a possible investigation over their initial refusal to help the miners and instead “smoke them out" by cutting off their food supplies.

National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that 78 bodies were retrieved in a court-ordered rescue operation, with 246 survivors also pulled out from deep underground since the operation began on Monday. Mathe said nine other bodies had been recovered before the rescue operation, without giving details.

Community groups launched their own rescue attempts when authorities said last year they would not help the hundreds of miners because they were “criminals.”

The miners are suspected to have died of starvation and dehydration, although no causes of death have been released.

South African authorities have been fiercely criticized for cutting off food and supplies to the miners in the Buffelsfontein Gold Mine last year. That tactic to “smoke them out,” as described by a prominent Cabinet minister, was condemned by one of South Africa's biggest trade unions.

Police and the mine owners were also accused of taking away ropes and dismantling a pulley system the miners used to enter the mine and send supplies down from the surface.

A court ordered authorities last year to allow food and water to be sent down to the miners, while another court ruling last week forced them to launch a rescue operation.

Many say the unfolding disaster underground was clear weeks ago, when community members sporadically pulled decomposing bodies out of the mine, some with notes attached pleading for food to be sent down.

“If the police had acted earlier, we would not be in this situation, with bodies piling up," said Johannes Qankase, a local community leader. “It is a disgrace for a constitutional democracy like ours. Somebody needs to account for what has happened here.”

South Africa's second biggest political party, which is part of a government coalition, called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to establish an independent inquiry to find out “why the situation was allowed to get so badly out of hand.”

“The scale of the disaster underground at Buffelsfontein is rapidly proving to be as bad as feared,” the Democratic Alliance party said.

Authorities now believe that nearly 2,000 miners were working illegally in the mine near the town of Stilfontein, southwest of Johannesburg, since August last year. Most of them resurfaced on their own over the last few months, police said, and all the survivors have been arrested, even as some emerged this week badly emaciated and barely able to walk to waiting ambulances.

A convoy of mortuary vans arrived at the mine to carry away the bodies.

Mathe said at least 13 children had also come out of the mine before the official rescue operation.

Police announced Wednesday that they were ending the operation after three days and believed no one else was underground. To be sure, a camera was sent down Thursday in a cage that was used to pull out survivors and bodies.

Two volunteer rescuers from the community had gone down in the small cage during the rescue operation to help miners as authorities refused to allow any official rescue personnel to go into the shaft because it was too dangerous.

“It has been a tough few days, there were many people who (we) saved but I still feel bad for those whose family members came out in body bags," said Mandla Charles, one of the volunteer rescuers. “We did all we could.” The two volunteers were being offered trauma counselling, police said.

The mine is one of the deepest in South Africa and is a maze of tunnels and levels and has several shafts leading into it. The miners were working up to 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) underground in different groups.

Police have maintained that the miners were able to come out through several shafts but refused out of fear of being arrested. That’s been disputed by groups representing the miners, who say hundreds were trapped and left starving in dark and damp conditions with decomposing bodies around them.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu denied in an interview with a national TV station that the police were responsible for any starvation and said they had allowed food to go down.

The initial police operation last year to force the miners to come out and give themselves up for arrest was part of a larger nationwide clampdown on illegal mining called Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole. Illegal mining is often in the news in South Africa and a major problem for authorities as large groups go into mines that have been shut down to extract leftover deposits.

Gold-rich South Africa has an estimated 6,000 abandoned or closed mines.

The illicit miners, known as “zama zamas” — "hustlers" or “chancers” in the Zulu language — are usually armed and part of criminal syndicates, the government says, and they rob South Africa of more than $1 billion a year in gold deposits. They are often undocumented foreign nationals and authorities said that the vast majority who came out of the Buffelsfontein mine were from Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and were in South Africa illegally.

Police said they seized gold, explosives, firearms and more than $2 million in cash from the miners and have defended their hardline approach.

“By providing food, water and necessities to these illegal miners, it would be the police entertaining and allowing criminality to thrive,” Mathe said Wednesday.

But the South African Federation of Trade Unions questioned the government's humanity and how it could “allow anyone — be they citizens or undocumented immigrants — to starve to death in the depths of the earth.”

While the police operation has been condemned by civic groups, the disaster hasn't provoked a strong outpouring of anger across South Africa, where the mostly foreign zama zamas have long been considered unwelcome in a country that already struggles with high rates of violent crime.

Imray reported from Cape Town, South Africa.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

The Acting Provincial Commissioner of North West, Major General Patrick Asaneng, centre, speaks to journalists outside an abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Mine rescue workers host up a cage that was used to rescue trapped miners at an abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

A truck carrying mine rescue workers drives out as they leave after rescueing trapped miners at an abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Mine rescue workers work on a cage that was used to rescue trapped miners at an abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

An abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Mine rescue workers host up a cage that was used to rescue trapped miners at an abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Rescue workers; motor vehicles park near a rescue operation for miners trapped below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

The Acting Provincial Commissioner of North West, Major General Patrick Asaneng, speaks to journalists outside an abandoned gold mine, where miners are rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Journalists are seen during a stake-out at an abandoned gold mine, where miners were rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

National police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe, speaks to journalist outside an abandoned gold mine, where miners are rescued from below ground, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Rescuer workers assist an illegal miner who has been trapped deep in an abandoned gold mine for months, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

A miner is assisted by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Illegal miners are escorted by police officers after being rescued from an abandoned gold mine for months, in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Forensic service workers carry remains in blue body bags during a rescue operation to rescue miners from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Families of miners and activist protest as South Africa's Police minister Senzo Mchunu visit an abandoned gold mine, where miners are rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Families of miners and activist protest as South Africa's Police minister Senzo Mchunu visit an abandoned gold mine, where miners are rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Forensic service vehicles arrive at the site where a rescue operation continues for miners trapped in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Forensic service workers carry body remains in blue body bags during a rescue operation to rescue miners from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

Forensic service workers carry bodies in blue body bags during a rescue operation to rescue miners from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

A miner is transported on a stretcher by rescue workers after he was rescued from below ground in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no immediate reaction to the news, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Meanwhile Monday, Iran called for pro-government demonstrators to head to the streets in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

Iran through country's parliamentary speaker warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

In Tehran, a witness told the AP that the streets of the capital empty at the sunset call to prayers each night. By the Isha, or nighttime prayer, the streets are deserted.

Part of that stems from the fear of getting caught in the crackdown. Police sent the public a text message that warned: “Given the presence of terrorist groups and armed individuals in some gatherings last night and their plans to cause death, and the firm decision to not tolerate any appeasement and to deal decisively with the rioters, families are strongly advised to take care of their youth and teenagers.”

Another text, which claimed to come from the intelligence arm of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, also directly warned people not to take part in demonstrations.

“Dear parents, in view of the enemy’s plan to increase the level of naked violence and the decision to kill people, ... refrain from being on the streets and gathering in places involved in violence, and inform your children about the consequences of cooperating with terrorist mercenaries, which is an example of treason against the country,” the text warned.

The witness spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing crackdown.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.

Nikhinson reported from aboard Air Force One.

In this frame grab from video obtained by the AP outside Iran, a masked demonstrator holds a picture of Iran's Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Friday, January. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran shows protesters taking to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)

In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)