Shinyanga — In what has been hailed as a tale of survival fit for a Hollywood script, five small-scale miners were found alive on Sunday in Kahama District after being trapped underground for 41 days.
They were rushed to hospital for medical attention, and their conditions were described as critical but stable.
The survivors have been identified as Mr Chacha Wambura, Mr Amos Mhangwa, Mr Joseph Bulule, Mr Msafiri Jeradi and Mr Onyiwa Morris. The sixth miner, Mussa Supana, died during the ordeal.
The miners' nightmare began on October 5 in Nyangarata, Kahama District, when the pit they were working in collapsed, trapping them underground.
An estimated 20 miners were in the 120-metre pit when the accident occurred. Only 14 made it out alive, while six remained trapped underground. Recounting their ordeal from his hospital bed, Mr Wambura said after realising that they had been trapped, they took refuge in a cave used to store mining tools.
They tried in vain to search for a way out using their helmet lamps and mobile phone flashlights, which ran out of power after a few days.
Efforts to reach the trapped miners using heavy machinery were futile.
On October 11, six days after the accident, the then Deputy Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr Charles Kitwanga, announced that the trapped miners were all feared dead.
"I have spoken to experts about this calamity, and they have informed me that it is virtually impossible to rescue the victims. I therefore ask anybody with traditional expertise to come forward and offer help," he said.
Meanwhile, the trapped miners were fighting what was increasingly looking like a losing battle.
Mr Wambura said their resolve and refusal to give up waned as the days went by.
"After spending seven days underground, we began to lose hope of making it out alive. We tried, without success, to tunnel our way out. Weak and tired, we waited for the inevitable," he said.
But as the miners wandered aimlessly and listlessly in a maze of underground tunnels, there suddenly was a ray of hope - literally. "We discovered a place where the sun's rays shone through a crack. We also found water seeping through. This gave us a new lease of life," Mr Wambura said.
With no food, they resorted to feeding on insects like cockroaches and barks of poles used to support tunnels.
"Supana refused to eat insects and became seriously ill due to hunger. We decided to abandon efforts to find a way out because we didn't want to leave anybody behind. We used our helmets to collect water and drink it despite the fact that it was dirty...we had no choice," he said.
One day, the miners heard people digging nearby. They tried to call for help, but nobody heard them. They were again resigned to their fate.
But there was renewed hope on Sunday when again they heard the faint sound of people digging somewhere near where they were trapped.
The people who were digging were, in fact, other small-scale miners who apparently had come to terms with the "loss" of their colleagues and gone back to work, knowing that life had to go on.
Mr Wambura said they shouted for help at the top of their voices and, fortunately, one of the miners heard them.
"He asked us who we were and we mentioned our names and told him what had happened to us. He told us to stay put, and after some time we heard people digging and they eventually broke through to where we were trapped."
The survivors were rushed to Kahama District Hospital, where the medical officer in charge, Dr Joseph Ngowi, said yesterday that they were responding well to treatment.
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