(Disturbing) PHOTO: 6 ‘galamseyers’ killed in in Western Region

• Posted on September 13, 2014September 13, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Six persons have been killed after an illegal mining pit collapsed on them Thursday afternoon at Wassa Adonoi, a community in the Amenfi District of the Western Region.

Assembly Member for the area, Issac Anum Odoro, said all six bodies have been retrieved and sent to the morgue.

A seventh person however, survived and is receiving treatment at a hospital in the town.

He explained that the area where illegal mining activities take place is located deep in a forest area, which made it easy for the miners to conduct their nefarious activities unnoticed.

He said the incident was unfortunate because, the Forestry Commission had recently gone to the area to warn the people of the community about the dangers of the illegal mining activities.

“As soon as they [illegal miners] saw that the people [Forestry Commission] had left they started mining again”, he said.

Incedents of illegal mining pits collapsing on miners are common in the mineral rich regions of the country, notably the Ashanti, Western, Eastern, Brong Ahafo and Northern regions.

In July a similar incident claimed one life, sparing nine others when the miners were engaged in illegal mining activities, called galamsey, in Banda Nkwanta in the Northern Region.

In January this year 17 people lost their lives in the Ashanti Region after a similar incident.

Destruction of forests and water bodies have become common in areas where there are illegal mining activities.