Another illegal mining disaster has occurred at Wassa Nananko in the Amenfi East District in the Western Region, leaving one person dead and another seriously injured.
The victim, who was identified as Mumuni Manya, 27, was trapped in a mudslide at a mining site at Nananko and died instantly.
The second person narrowly escaped death but sustained serious degrees of injury. He is said to be in critical condition at an unnamed hospital.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic, the Western Regional Police Public Relations Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Olivia Ewurabena Adiku, said the two were in the company of other illegal miners who escaped after the incident.
She said the area in question was an alluvial mining site which was deserted by illegal miners following the ban on galamsey across the country.
However, some of the illegal miners sneaked to the site to continue to ply their trade on the blind side of the law.
When contacted, the Amenfi East District Police Commander, Superintendent Daniel Amoako, said several warnings to the people in the area not to go back to the sites did not yield any result.
The body of the deceased, he said, had been deposited at the Wassa Akropong Government Hospital morgue for preservation and autopsy.
Meanwhile, the fight against illegal mining being championed by the police and the Volunteers Against Environmental Degradation (VAED) in the Western Region has come to a halt as the team has run out of finances.
The group, which was credited with flushing out several Chinese illegal miners and their Ghanaian collaborators in parts of the country, funded its own operations.
The leader of the team, Mr Richard Addo, said the members of the team looked on helplessly as some illegal miners resumed their activities with impunity.
In a related development, reports indicate that there is a mad rush by illegal miners to return to the deep forest in the Western Region to carry out their operations ahead of the deployment of the anti-galamsey task force.
Areas including Shama, Daboase, Ahanta West, Nzema East, Tarkwa Nsuaem, Prestea Huni-Valley, Amenfi West, Amenfi Central, Amenfi West, Wassa and Denkyira have witnessed significant levels of galamsey activities in recent days.
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(Via: CitiFM Online Ghana)
