On August 6, 2025, tragedy struck Ghana when a Ghana Air Force Harbin Z-9 helicopter carrying the Defence and Environment ministers and senior military officers crashed near Obuasi, killing all eight people on board.
The fatal incident has plunged the nation into mourning and prompted urgent calls for a fact-based investigation.
In an opinion piece titled “The Obuasi Tragedy: Truth Over Hysteria, Justice Over Propaganda,” commentator Baffour Asare Yamoah condemned early speculation that the helicopter was shot down by small-scale miners.
“Let me state without hesitation: there is no credible evidence to support this claim,” he wrote.
“Such unfounded theories dishonour the memory of the dead and distract from the urgent need for facts and justice.”
The ill-fated mission, Yamoah explained, was not a political spectacle but a high-stakes intervention in the country’s ongoing fight against illegal mining, known locally as galamsey.
The ministers were expected to meet local stakeholders under the government’s Responsible Cooperative Mining framework — a program aimed at formalising artisanal mining while protecting the environment and sustaining livelihoods.
“If this mission was unimportant, why risk sending the nation’s top security and environmental officials into one of the most contentious and dangerous arenas in our mining industry? The answer is simple: because the fight against galamsey is not a fight we can afford to lose,” Yamoah stressed.
While acknowledging that illegal mining survives because “powerful people protect it,” Yamoah rejected calls for an outright ban on small-scale mining.
He pointed to the 2017 blanket ban and Operation Vanguard as failed strategies that drove mining underground and worsened environmental destruction.
“Our real fight is against the political, business, and traditional power brokers who bankroll illegal operations and corrupt enforcement efforts,” he said.
“Until we confront them, every ban will fail, and every operation will collapse under its own hypocrisy.”
Four-Point Plan
Yamoah urged the government to enforce existing laws with “impartiality, consistency, and courage” by:
1. Prosecuting powerful backers regardless of political affiliation or influence.
2. Licensing and regulating mining cooperatives under strict environmental and safety standards.
3. Using technology such as satellite tracking, drone surveillance, and transparent concession data.
4. Empowering communities with alternative livelihoods and environmental education.
Investigation Demands
The black box from the helicopter has been recovered and will be examined. Yamoah insisted that the probe must be fully independent to uncover the exact cause of the crash.
“We must ask hard questions not to fuel conspiracy, but to ensure accountability,” he wrote. “Was the mission planned with adequate risk assessment? Were there threats that went unaddressed?”
A Call for Restraint
Yamoah concluded with a plea for unity and discipline in public discourse.
“This tragedy must not be weaponised for political gain, nor used as an excuse for reactionary bans that harm the innocent and protect the guilty,” he said. “Healing it requires truth, justice, and the courage to take on the untouchables. Anything less is an insult to the lives lost on that fateful day in Obuasi.”
Government officials have yet to release full details of the crash investigation as of the time of writing this article.
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