17 illegal miners trapped to death: 13 in hospital

Seventeen illegal gold miners —14 men and three women — were trapped to death when an abandoned mining pit in which they were digging for gold caved in at Kyekyewere, near Dunkwa-on-Offin in the Central Region, Monday.

At the time of going to press at 7 p.m., 13 people had been rescued and rushed to hospital for medical attention, while emergency workers were still searching for more victims believed to have been trapped in the pit.

Twelve of the deceased have been identified. They are Kofi Amankwa, alias Komfo; Kojo Afful, Kwaku Aboroso, Sister Ama and  Clement Abukari, all from Amoafo, near Kyekyewere.

The rest are Kwame Appiah, Uncle Yaw, Ata Panin, Sister Shetu, Kwadwo Abanga, Brother Kwasi and Akwasi Pau, from Kyekyewere.

Their remains have been deposited at the Dunkwa Government Hospital morgue for autopsy.

The identities of the remaining miners are yet to be known.

The incident has thrown Kyekyewere, a predominantly farming community, into a state of shock and mourning. 

The mining site was originally mined by Chinese but was abandoned some months ago.

Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku rushed to the scene to assess the situation.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic from the disaster site about 4 p.m. yesterday, the Dunkwa Police Commander, Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr William Otoo Larbi, said emergency workers were still digging through the mix of rocks and mud with the view to finding more bodies.

That was because of the inconsistencies in the number of disaster victims given by some of the residents of Kyekyewere, he said.

Mr Larbi would not give further details, saying, “I am coming back to write my official report.”

An eyewitness from the community who also spoke on phone to the Daily Graphic described the scene as “terrible”.

“I’m devastated because this is the saddest day in the history of this area. I tell you we’ve never seen such a thing before,” he said in a shrill voice.

One after another the bodies were brought out of the pit as an excavator dug out rocks and mud, with local people wailing uncontrollably.

The bodies were covered with mud and it took some time for neighbours to identify them.

Safety in the illegal mines spread across the Denkyira area in the Central Region and other parts of the country is either very poor or non-existent.

Recently, National Security embarked on a series of operations to close down many of the mines operated by Chinese.

According to the eyewitness, when the Chinese abandoned the pit after working in it for some time, they covered it with some weak timber boards but some community members also started operating in the it.

In the morning of yesterday, a number of people went there to mine but, unfortunately, many of them met their death.

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu