Correspondence from the Western Region

The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah, has pledged to fight illegal mining with integrity, stating he would rather die fighting with integrity than be corrupted in the fight against galamsey.

Armah-Kofi Buah made the pledge on Thursday, September 3, 2026, when he paid a working visit to the Ankobra River in the Western Region to assess the impact of Operation Water Shield, being carried out by the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) and the Navy Special Forces.

"If you had visited this Ankobra River in the last one year, the whole River was a workshop where the chanfan machines were being manufactured left and right all over the river body but today I can tell you through all the miles we have covered, Ankobra is cleared off from chanfan machines," he said.

He said the operation had so far resulted in the removal of close to three thousand chanfan machines not only on the Ankobra but on other Rivers, including the Offin, adding that several arrests have been made including foreign nationals.

"Today I can tell you that through all the mileage we have covered, the Ankobra is completely cleared off from chanfan machines, cleared off other makeshifts and other equipment," the Minister stated.

According to him, the results clearly show that the country is turning the corner in the fight against illegal mining, attributing the success to a shift to more intelligence-led and intentional operations with permanent deployment.

"We have shifted from sporadic raids to permanent deployment and it is actually showing this result and I think that if you have followed this difficult work in the last one and half years you will not be sitting on any TV in Accra talking that we are not making any progress," he stressed.

Armah-Kofi Buah, however, acknowledged that the fight was not yet over, saying "We have not gotten to where we want to see the river blue but we have made great progress. We have cleared all the chanfans on the river and those with welding guns."

He commended the Commander of NAIMOS, Col. Kwame Sam Appiah and his team and their collaboration with the Special Forces, stating that the great nation is proud of what they are doing and that the President is very interested in their work and rooting for them to succeed.

The Minister said he was proud to see a shift where a lot of young men who were on the river last year have been moved into cooperative mining and enrolled onto the responsible small scale mining program through training and capacity building.

"We have combined training, building capacity and basically showing a lot of young people that there is a better way of looking for gold, you can look for gold without destroying our water bodies and our forests," he said.

He reiterated his commitment to fighting with integrity, noting that the road ahead requires dedication and integrity, adding that he had said it one million times that he will choose to fight with integrity and die than being corrupted in this dangerous work that will destroy all of us.

Armah-Kofi Buah said the next phase of the fight will target the powerful forces hiding in the dark who are the sponsors and financiers behind the machines and excavators that were destroyed and seized, vowing that government will not waiver until the fight is won.

"The machines we destroyed, the excavators we seized, those behind them are powerful forces that are hiding in the dark and in our next face is to continue to fish them out and we are going to continue to fight all the way those sponsors, those financiers until we win this fight," he pledged.

He expressed belief that the good people of Ghana are with government in the fight and called for continuous dedication to secure the gains made on the Ankobra and other water bodies.

The NAIMOS Director assured the Lands and Natural Resources Minister that he and his team would continue to fight against illegal miners in Ghana.

He took the opportunity to commend the Blue Water Guards for their support.