Aljazeera reporter Kent Mensah has questioned the Ghanaian government over the fate of the soldiers deployed in 2021 to protect the country’s water bodies from illegal mining, also known as galamsey.
Despite the deployment of 200 soldiers, announced by Defense Minister Dominic Nitiwul, the galamsey menace remains largely unresolved.
In a Facebook post on October 8, 2024, Mensah expressed his concerns, asking, “What happened to the soldiers? In 2021, the Defense Minister announced that 200 soldiers had been deployed to protect our water bodies from illegal mining (galamsey). So what became of that effort? Did the soldiers fail, or were they simply overwhelmed by the scale of the problem?”
Mensah, a journalist with AFP, Aljazeera, and VOA, argued that the military had received state backing and significant resources for the task, yet the illegal mining crisis persists. He emphasized that it is unfair to blame other security agencies like the police when the military had been entrusted with primary responsibility.
“We deserve answers. Blaming the police and other security agencies in this fight feels misplaced when the military, with all the state resources and backing, was tasked with protecting our water. If even the military couldn’t succeed in this mission, it signals a much larger issue at hand,” he added.