At least 78 people have died after authorities imposed a blockade on an illegal gold mine here, part of a monthslong standoff between prospectors and a government determined to force them to surface—often by cutting off their food and water.

The clampdown on illegal mining cut off food and water to hundreds of miners underground. At least 78 bodies were pulled from a mining shaft this week, and more are believed to remain underground.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of miners have been trapped underground at a disused mine in South Africa for weeks as a police operation results in a humanitarian disaster – and a growing number of corpses.