Illegal miners return to site few days after military swoop, Ghanaians share thoughts on govt’s strategy

Journalist Edem Srem has reported that a few days after the government deployed some 100 soldiers to arrest Galamsey operators, miners have returned to the site.

Showing images of Changfans on the Ayinam portion of the Birim River, Mr. Srem noted that the miners came back three days after the operation took place.

Figure 1 One of the images shared by journalist Edem Srem

“Just after the Armed Forces embarked on a clean up on the Birim River on Friday 11th October, miners have gone back on the Birim River on 14/10/2024 at Anyinam” he said in a post on X.

In another video posted by the journalist on the 16^th of October 2024, Changfans are seen sitting on the River Birim with dark fumes coming from them, indicating they are working. Some miners are also seen working on or close to the machines.

Meanwhile, following the post, Ghanaians have expressed their frustration at the development citing faults with the strategy government has employed in this renewed agenda to tackle the menace.

One X user shared “Arresting the labourers won’t solve this issue. Arrests should be targeted at the sponsors” which was supported by another user who responded “Both have to be apprehend.”

“Anyone who will be surprised by this lives under a rock. We knew it was just a smokescreen. Thanks for the shots.” Another user shared.

Background

On the 10^th of October 2024, government deployed some 100 soldiers to go around the country to galamsey affected sites in a bid to crackdown activities of operators. This action followed threats by Organized Labour to embark on a strike should government fail to take action. The strike which was slated to begin on the 10^th of October was called off on the 9^th, less than 24 hours to the 10^th of October. Among their demands, organized labour called on government to among other things, place a moratorium on all forms of small-scale mining, including community mining, with immediate effect and revoke LI 2462 which gives power to the president to allow mining in forest reserves.

Before calling off their strike, leadership of Organized Labour met the president in a close door meeting at the Jubilee House. After calling it off, government deployed some 100 soldiers on the 11^th of October 2024 to crack down on ongoing operations. It also announced that the LI 2462 has been sent to parliament requesting for the process to revoke it to commence.

By: Samuel Swanzy-Baffoe