Senior lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Dr. Jonathan Asante Okyere, has urged the government and military leaders to equip all soldiers deployed to combat illegal mining with body-worn cameras.
He believes that these cameras will document every action and interaction of the soldiers during operations, thereby minimizing the risk of them being influenced or compromised by illegal miners, known as galamseyers.
While acknowledging the essential role of the military in addressing this issue, Dr. Asante Okyere emphasized that the potential for soldiers to be swayed cannot be overlooked.
“Fix body cams on the soldiers, so that everything will be recorded at a centralized point to prevent the soldiers from being compromised,” he said on the Big Issue on TV3 Friday, October 11.
Retired Colonel Festus Aboagye, a security expert, has criticized the government’s strategy of deploying military personnel to combat illegal small-scale mining, commonly referred to as galamsey.
He labeled this approach, along with the destruction of illegal mining equipment like chanfans, as a shortsighted solution to a pressing national security issue.
Aboagye questioned the long-term viability of relying on military force in addressing this challenge.
His remarks came in response to the recent actions taken under the government’s “Operation Halt” initiative, which saw soldiers destroy 18 chanfans, 10 industrial water pumping machines, and one excavator across various illegal mining sites in Ghana. This initiative is part of the government’s broader efforts to tackle the galamsey crisis.
In light of ongoing illegal mining activities, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has instructed the Minister of Defence to reinforce military presence to strengthen Operation Halt.
Additionally, the President has ordered the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, along with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to immediately suspend the enforcement of L.I. 2462, which regulates mining in forest reserves.
These actions follow a meeting with Organised Labour on October 8, during which the group threatened a nationwide strike on October 10 if the government did not take decisive measures against illegal mining. In a statement released on October 9, the Office of the Presidency outlined several steps to address the concerns raised by Organised Labour.