Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, the Minister of Information, says the government will soon launch a long-term plan involving the deployment of soldiers to root out illegal miners working in the country’s waterways.
This measure, he claims, is intended to assist the government in conclusively dealing with illegal mining issues.
On Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 200 military troops were mobilized to root out illegal miners who were poisoning the country’s water sources.
The Ghana Armed Forces made this determination in response to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s order.
The activity began on the River Pra in the Central and Western Regions, according to a release from the Information Ministry.
“In order to ensure that mining within water bodies is immediately stopped, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has authorized the Ghana Armed Forces to begin an operation to remove all persons and logistics involved in mining from Ghana’s water bodies,” according to the final communiqué of the Stakeholder Dialogue on Small Scale Mining held on April 14 and 15.
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“On Wednesday, April 28, 2021, at 0600 hours, the activity on the River Pra in Ghana’s Central and Western Regions began. The operation entails the participation of 200 officers from the Ghana Armed Forces.”
In a subsequent interview with Citi News, Mr. Oppong Nkrumah said that anybody digging in the forest reserves would be flushed out.
“The Ministry of Defense and the Ghana Armed Forces will lay out the sustainability strategy in depth to ensure that we have much better results this time than we did the first time. Mining is prohibited in timber reserves. It isn’t a question of whether this is legal or not. That is why the president has authorized the Ghana Armed Forces to begin removing all persons and equipment used in mining operations, which will begin on the River Pra.”
