from typing import List
import re


def makefile_depends_get_dependencies(depends: str) -> List[str]:
    """Return list with the dependencies of a makefile target.

    Split the makefile depends specification, the name of the dependent is
    followed by ":" its dependencies follow the ":".  There could be spaces
    around the ":".  Line continuation characters, i.e. "\" are consumed by
    the regular expression that splits the specification.

    This results in a list with the dependent first, and its dependencies
    in the remainder of the list, return everything in the list other than
    the first element.
    """
    return re.split(r"[:\s\\]+", re.sub(r"[\s\\]*\Z", "", depends))[1:]