THREE bodies have been recovered from the Nyandolwa gold mine, where 21 miners remained underground five days after a shaft collapse.Thomas Majuto, the acting regional fire and rescue commander, said in an interview yesterday that the miners have been trapped in the collapsed mine since midmorning on Monday during maintenance work when part of the mine caved in.

Earlier, three people were rescued and one of them later died from injuries, the first reported death from the mine collapse before the three bodies were recovered. Residents in the area and the wider public were increasingly despairing of finding survivors after the three bodies were recovered as five days had passed since the mine shaft accident was reported.

Fikiri Mnwagi, the chief mining inspector, explained that 25 miners were repairing shafts when the ground suddenly gave way, causing the collapse. He said that the trapped men are still alive but face worsening conditions due to the delay in rescue.

Rescue teams were battling narrow entry shafts slowing their urgent operation, on the mine that is operated by a gold mine workers’ cooperative, where during the first day there was a plea from underground, where the trapped miners called for increased manpower and urgent deployment of advanced equipment to speed up the operation.

“The longer the delay, the slimmer the chances of survival,” one message conveyed to rescuers noted, while shockwaves on the incident troubled authorities far and wide, with President Samia Suluhu Hassan issuing a grieving statement and directing urgent rescue action.

“I have received with great sadness reports of the disaster at Nyandolwa Mine, where 25 of our fellow citizens were buried by debris,” she wrote on her social media platform, seeking to console the shocked family members.

She tasked the Prime Minister’s Office to coordinate with defense and security forces, plus the rapid dispatch of humanitarian aid to the site, while Minerals deputy minister Stephen Kiruswa, who visited the site on Wednesday, confirmed the death of 27-year-old Emmanuel Kija—the only miner initially pulled out alive who later succumbed to his injuries.

Desperate relatives waited at the site while rescue workers pressed on with limited tools, as the community and country remained tense in the hope that the rescuers will bring up survivors to light.