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.

Anti- galamsey

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.

Resumption

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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Source: Graphic.com.gh

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The body was retrieved by the 15-member rescue team deployed into the pit.

The search party reportedly has challenges pulling some of the other bodies out of the pit.

The Prestea District Police Commander, Superintendent Joseph Dzineku, said the yet-to-be identified body has been sent to the Prestea Government Hospital morgue.

The Deputy Western Regional Minister, Gifty Eugenia Kusi, and her entourage, on Wednesday visited the accident scene to offer their support.

Her visit follows a tour of the site by the Deputy Lands and Natural Resources Minister, Benito Owusu Bio on Tuesday, to coordinate activities of a search party made up of rescuers from the Bogoso Golden Star Resources Mining Company, the Ghana Police, Ghana National Fire Service, NADMO and the Ghana Armed Forces.

Rescue equipment were supplied to the team, and they also received some financial support.

Mr. Benito entreated the youth to desist from illegal mining activities as government remains committed to ending the canker.

About 14 persons died on Monday after a mining pit they were mining in collapsed on them.

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By: Obrempong Yaw Ampofo/Citifmonline.com/Ghana

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A cousin of the deceased who is the Assembly Member for the area, Owusu Asante Ahmed, said the deceased and his colleagues were working at a construction firm close to the site when he fell into the pit.

[contextly_sidebar id=”5WinWJzwOkGxOuIiPrtGjAY92hcFSZvj”]Mr. Asante explained that, colleagues of the deceased wanted to initially help him after he fell into the pit, but they failed after several attempts, prompting them to inform elders of the community about the incident.

“He went there as a labourer at the construction site so after the day’s work, all the labourers decided to go there and wash themselves in the abandoned Galamsey pit. The water was so deep that he could not control himself after diving into the water so later on the boys around thought that they could not save him so they decided to come to the community and inform the elders; so I drove to the place and we found some swimmers to get him out of the pond.”

“Before we could bring him out of the pond, he was already dead, but me not being a medical officer could not confirm his death so I took him to a nearby medical centre for a medical assistant to confirm for us and they said he was dead already.”

BECE student drowns in abandoned galamsey pit 

A few weeks ago, a similar incident, involving a 15-year-old Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidate of the Sekyere Himang Methodist JHS in the Wassa East District of the Western Region, occurred.

The deceased, Ransford Donkor, reportedly went to wash in the abandoned pit after carrying farm produce from his village to Hemang, which is few meters away for onward transportation to Beposo, a popular market centre.

His lifeless body was found floating in the pit by some community members who retrieved it for burial.

Abandoned galamsey pits over the years trapped many people and taken lives.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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