Gov’t to phase out army in galamsey war

The military will no more be employed in the crusade against illegal small-scale mining in the country, John Peter Amewu, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, has disclosed.

The Akufo-Addo administration, shortly after its induction, declared war on the practice, locally termed galamsey, to save the environment from degradation. Soldiers and police officers have been deployed to illegal mining sites to arrest galamseyers and seize their equipment in the government’s bid to see an end to the phenomenon.

Speaking on Ghana Yensom on Accra100.5FM today, Thursday July 20, Mr Amewu said the Multilateral Mining Integrated Project (MMIP) document that has budgeted a total of $150million to fight the galamsey menace, also has a component for the training of a task force specifically dedicated to patrolling galamsey sites, ensuring that the military’s services are no longer required.

“The task force is to go in now and make sure it takes out illegal miners from the site and stay at the site for a minimum one year. So that is going to be the activity of the task force.”

He added: “Going forward, we are not going to be using the military in the protection of our mines. We will not be doing that. We will be having a dedicated force trained under the Police Service or under the Minerals Commission…to make sure that these forces are going to protect our mines. And these are what we call the Mining Intelligence Unit. So the military is not going to be the permanent alternative for protection of mines but the Mining Intelligence Unit that will come up, either under the police or under the Minerals Commission, they are going to stay for the future to protect our mines.”

He explained that there were indeed some military officers securing some mining sites across the country, saying this was as a result of an agreement between the Chamber of Mines and the military which government was aware of.

Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com