APA learned that families of the victims are mourning their loved ones who are presumed to be dead after 19 days trapped under the collapsed cave.
From the start, it appeared that authorities did not have the capacity to undertake the kind of search operation needed to rescue the miners due to difficult topography of the site to deploy excavators. The location is said to be a cliff and difficult to use machinery.
“The chance of recovering them alive is slim,” relatives of the miners told APA in a telephone interview.
The number of miners who are said to be missing is at least eight.
“It is more grieve that we have not recovered their bodies and laid them to rest,” they added.
Delanta district administration head was quoted as saying that the effort the administration has been making over the past 19 days to rescue them through traditional and modern mode of rescue operation did not bear fruit.
In the first few days, more than 50 meters of ground was dug through manual labor. Later, an attempt was made to use excavators but the topography was not convenient.
The accident happened on February 8 in Delanta district, Alehuat locality of South Wollo area of the Amhara region of Ethiopia.
MG/abj/APA