Saanso disaster, trapped miners bodies found

Saanso(W/R), April 19, GNA -The bodies of three small-scale miners, popularly known as galamsey operators who were trapped underground were on Wednesday found by a rescue team made up of personnel from Abosso Goldfields Limited (AGL) and the Police.

The bodies have been handed over to their relatives for burial. Chief Supt. Daniel Sapart Sampana, Tarkwa Divisional Police Commander confirmed the story.

He said, after an initial fruitless search, a team of Policemen were dispatched to the mine site to join personnel of AGL to continue the search for the miners who were buried alive. The deceased were identified as James Boa and Addae both aged 21 and haile from Wassa Nkwanta near Wassa Nsuaem and Kingsley 38, a citizen of Beahu near Takoradi.

Barely three days after nine small-scale miners lost their lives in a pit at Japa-Dadieso near Wassa Akropong in the Amenfi East District, another three were feared dead at Saanso near Huni-Valley in the Wassa West District all in the Western Region when a pit in which they were working caved in on Wednesday, April 18.

Three other miners who managed to escape sustained injuries and are responding to treatment at the Huni-Valley clinic. They are Evans Nyamekye who had a fracture on his left hand and Kaarsum, who had a broken leg and Kwaku Amoako who had some bruises on his legs. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the scene, Amoako said the incident occurred between 0800 and 0900 hours on Wednesday, April 18.

He said blasting was carried out on Tuesday, April 17 and in the morning a group of 18 small scale miners, made up of nine women and nine men went to the site and begun carting loose ore from the pit to the surface for processing.

According to Amoako initially, seven people, including himself entered but one was asked to leave the pit and six of them remained.

He said after some time, he realised that some loose materials were falling into the pit and called his colleagues to come out when he was leaving the pit but unfortunately the three were trapped and feared dead while the other two who managed to leave sustained injuries.

In the morning, a rescue team, made up of personnel from Abosso Goldfields Limited (AGL) and the Police arrived at the scene to evacuate the deceased but could not locate them and gave up until Thursday morning when the deceased were found after on intensive search. 19 April 07