Nine young men are confirmed dead after an illegal mining pit caved in at Atta Ne Atta in the Asutifi South District of the Ahafo Region, with local officials revealing that both the landowner and community leaders had warned the miners to leave the site before the tragedy struck.
The collapse happened late Saturday night, February 28, into the early hours of Sunday, March 1, at a site that had only recently been excavated. The Assemblyman for the Apremede-Oseikrom Electoral Area, Mannah Mustapha, said the landowner had already asked the miners to vacate and that police from the Kenyasi Police Station had visited the area about a week earlier after receiving reports of illegal mining activity.
“We were all trying to stop them,” Mustapha said. “The police only took pictures as evidence. It was about three to four days after the galamsey started that the unfortunate incident happened.”
Adom News reported that the victims had moved to the area after hearing that significant gold deposits had been discovered there. Experienced local miners suggested the pit walls were not reinforced with wooden pegs, a standard safety measure that might have prevented the collapse.
Following initial fears that more miners were trapped, the Assemblyman and local authorities mobilised residents to dig through the collapsed earth. After hours of searching, no additional victims were found, and the site was subsequently covered to prevent further danger.
Four injured miners are currently on admission at St. Elizabeth Catholic Hospital in Hwidiem, where medical staff say they are responding positively to treatment.
The disaster was initially misreported. Early accounts placed the incident at Manso Tontokrom in the Ashanti Region and put the death toll at ten. Residents of Manso Tontokrom publicly denied any collapse occurred in their community, and hospital authorities subsequently confirmed that one body originally counted among the dead was unrelated to the cave-in, bringing the verified toll to nine.
Atta Ne Atta falls within the Asutifi South constituency and has previously been in the national spotlight following a confrontation involving the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) during prior anti-galamsey enforcement operations.
The deaths come as President John Mahama’s administration has pledged a tougher posture against illegal mining, including the prosecution of what the President has described as the “big fishes” behind galamsey networks. Investigations into Sunday’s collapse are ongoing.
