In the serene landscapes of Sapelliga, a border town nestled in Ghana’s Upper East Region, a battle for territorial integrity is raging on silently. Galamsey a corrupted form of the phrase, “gather them and sell” refers to illegal, small-scale gold mining operations which are rampant in the region. Galamsey is not only destroying vast tracts of land and ravaging the environment but also threatening the very boundaries that define Ghana’s sovereignty.
Recently, the Ghana Boundary Commission issued a warning during their inspection tour of the galamsey-devastated areas. Major General Emmanuel Kotia, the Commissioner General, expressed grave concern about the encroachment on Ghana’s border with Burkina Faso. He lamented the unauthorized removal of international boundary pillars, which has led to a blurring of the delineation between the two nations. “There were a lot of interferences as far as our boundary line is concerned,” he emphasized.
The repercussions of these activities are profound. With boundary markers obliterated, there is a looming danger of territorial annexation or misidentification. Major General Kotia cautioned, “Some of our territories can be taken or probably can be declared as part of Burkina Faso because these markings are not visible on the ground.”
The need to address this issue with urgency cannot be overemphasized, in view of the obvious cross-border threats. It was a point the Regional Minister, Mr. Hafiz Bin Saleh, stressed when he addressed galamsey operators during his tour. “What you are doing currently is unacceptable. It’s highly unacceptable,” he declared, urging immediate cessation of illegal activities.
The ramifications extend beyond environmental degradation and territorial disputes. Saleh also underscored the unsettling reality that galamsey operations could attract to Ghana, large numbers of terrorists from the Sahel posing as small-scale miners. “In Burkina Faso, there are insurgents and terrorists who want to infiltrate our country,” he cautioned, highlighting the need to sever the financial lifelines supporting nefarious activities. “To be able to perpetuate what they are doing, they need financing, so they engage in what you people are doing,” he noted.
“To save the people of this country, we want to stop issues of this nature so that people don’t have the means to fund nefarious activities,” he said, adding, “We will not allow the interest of any individual or any group of persons to affect the peace that the country is enjoying.”
The Regional Security Council’s resolute stance reflects a commitment to safeguarding Ghana’s peace and sovereignty. Saleh affirmed, “We will not allow the interest of any individual or any group of persons to affect the peace that the country is enjoying.”
Efforts to address this multifaceted challenge are underway. The Minerals Commission will intervene to facilitate lawful mining practices, ensuring compliance with regulations and licensing procedures. This proactive approach seeks to strike a balance between economic interests and national security imperatives.
Also, in April 2017, Ghana’s Minster of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation at the time, Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, after a visit to Ghana’s western neighbour, Ivory Coast, said officials of the Francophone country had complaied to him that galamsey activities in Ghana were polluting water courses and contaminating their sources of water supply.
“Galamsey is having an effect on Cote d’Ivoire because River Bia in the Western region enters Cote d’Ivoire almost at the lower turn. Also, the Tano River enters the lagoon and is polluting the Abii lagoon so they are unable to treat water in some of their water treatment plants”, Prof Frimpong Boateng explained.
At a stakeholders’ forum as part of the media campaign to end activities of illegal miners, Prof Frimpong-Boateng noted: “I made it clear to the Ivorian authorities that we, as a government, are very serious in stopping galamsey. But in all these, the Ivorian people are hopeful of a positive response in view of the cordial relationship between President Nana Addo and President Ouattara.”
Following that revelation, security expert Kwesi Aning, warned that the situation could heighten tensions between the two countries. “It could be something considerably more serious. We are already having a couple of contentious issues with Ivory Coast. We have the maritime boundary issue that is unsettled. We have the land boundary issues. We have cocoa, rice and sugar smuggling issues. We have some of their earlier rebels in town. So, the galamsey issue coming on top of all these unsettled and all these unresolved challenges could be considerably more dramatic”, Prof Aning told Citi FM at the time. He added: “Polluted rivers in Ghana flowing across the boundary in Ivory Coast, polluting their rivers and underground sources of water, threatening livelihoods could worsen the tensions that are already in existence”.
As Ghana navigates the complex terrain of galamsey, it confronts not only environmental degradation but also existential threats to its territorial integrity. The battle to reclaim lost ground and preserve sovereignty is waged not only in the trenches of Sapelliga but in several other parts of the country.
For instance, in Ghana’s Western Region, parts of which share borders with Ivory Coast, galamsey is very predominant in Tarkwa, Prestea, Bogoso, Asankragua, Wassa Akropong, Wassa Japa, Mpohor, Damang, Nkroful, Teleku Bukazo, Anhwiaa, Axim, Ewereko, Daboase, Atieku-Akyempim, among others. In the Western North Region, places like Aowin, Bibiani, Enchi, Sefwi Bekwai, Sefwi Wiawso, Sefwi Akontombra, Suaman, among others, are the galamsey hotspots. In Ahafo, one finds galamsey towns like Duayaw Nkwanta, Kenyasi, Ntotroso, Yamfo, and others while in neighboring Bono, there is Dormaa, Kyeremasu, and Wamfie, as well as Donkoro Nkwanta, Kintampo, Nkoranza, among others in the Bono East Region. In the Savanna Region, there is Banada Nkwanta, Dollar Power (border town), and Ntereso. In the Upper West Region, towns like Lawra, Cherikpong, Tanchara, Sissala East, and others are plagued by galamsey, while in the Upper East Region, Talensi, Bolga, and other towns have caught the plague too. In the North East Region, you have Nanguma and Mamprugu. In the Northern Region, there is Bole, Bamboi, Dakurpe, and Tinga. In the Oti Region, there is alluvial mining in Worawora. The Eastern Region has places like Adeiso, Akwatia, Anyinam, Akyem Asunafo, Akwaboaso, Akroful, Awerenare, Kwabeng, Kyebi, Kibi, Oda, Ofoase-Ayirebi, Osino, New Abirem, and Nkatieso, all taken over by galamseyers. The Central Region is represented by Dunkwa, Ayanfuri, Assin Asaman, and Assin Fosu on the galamsey map. The situation is no different in the Ashanti Region, where galamsey is the mainstay in places like Obuasi, Adansi Akrokerri, Adansi Akrofuom, Amansie, Manso Nkwanta, Manso Adubia, Agroyesum, Esaase Bontefufuom, Ntobroso, Diewuoso, Aduaneyede, Gyimiso, Mampamhwe, Patakro, Fomena, and several other places.
Galamsey is a quick, illegal, and clandestine means to rake in large amounts of money, and the terrorist cells in the Sahel know this perfectly well. It can quickly replenish their war chest when they run dry. To own concessions, they must kill and enslave locals to labour for them.
The Sahel region, spanning western and north-central Africa, faces a myriad security challenges, including coups, weak governance, terrorism, human trafficking, human rights abuses, climate change disasters, and socio-economic vulnerabilities. These issues have made the Sahel a breeding ground for various forms of violence and extremism. The region has witnessed political instability, with military takeovers and coups disrupting governance in countries like Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Sudan. Terrorism, particularly perpetrated by groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Boko Haram, and Ansaroul Islam, among others, remains a significant threat. These groups exploit religious, ethnic, and socio-economic grievances to recruit fighters and expand their influence. The violence they perpetrate ranges from targeted assassinations to large-scale assaults on military and civilian targets, exacerbating instability and hindering development efforts.
The security threats in the Sahel are complex and interconnected, intersecting with other forms of criminality like drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and human trafficking. Environmental degradation through resource mining, as well as climate change, further exacerbates vulnerabilities, fuelling conflicts over scarce resources like land and water.
At a recent seminar on ‘The Media and National Security’, organized in Accra, Ghana’s capital, by the Centre for Intelligence and Security Analysis (CISA), the Chief Executive Officer of the Center, Ambassador Rasheed Inusah highlighted at the key issues relating to the threats which he described as very real: Amabassador Inusah went on to predict that the issues would remain some of the most pressing peace and security concerns of Africa in 2024, a year in which national elections will be held in 20 countries including Ghana.
By the end of 2023, ACSRT’s database indicated a 99% increase in the number of terrorist attacks and a 53% increase in the number of terrorist-related deaths noted in the period from January to December 2023, as compared to the previous year of 2022, Ambassador Inusah, a former Dirrector-General of Ghana’s National Intelligence Bureau (NIB), said.
Ambassador Inusah said the database also registered eight terrorist attacks and 43 terrorism-related deaths per day for the same period. In just a matter of years, Africa has become the “global epicenter of terrorism,” with groups such as Da’esh, Al-Qaida, and their affiliates exploiting local conflicts and fragilities to serve their ends, CISA’s Chief Executive Officer said. “Terrorism and violent extremism are the biggest evils of our time – spreading to all the five regions of Africa,” Ambassador Inusah said quoting from the African Union’s Commission Chief’s assessment of the issue during a high-level meeting on counter-terrorism in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Monday, 22nd April 2024, according to an AU statement.
Deaths from terrorism in Africa skyrocketed by more than 100,000 percent during the U.S. war on terror, according to a new study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a Pentagon research institution. For 15 years, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has battled a spate of violent attacks from insurgent groups that have entrenched their strongholds across swathes of Africa’s troubled Sahel region, leaving thousands dead. This year’s frightening statistics represents highest death toll in Nigeria since 2020, driven by a surge in conflict between ISWA and Boko Haram. If the conflict between these two groups was excluded, terrorism deaths would have declined by 18 percent, he noted.
Inusah a former top-level foreign service official said there had been a surge in terrorism in Niger in 2023 after an initial decline in 2022. The number of terrorist attacks increased to 61 in 2023, up from 54 in the previous year. Deaths more than doubled, with 468 deaths in 2023 compared to 193 deaths in 2022, indicating a significant escalation in the lethality of attacks. Mali suffered the eighth deadliest terrorist attack of the year in the Gao region of Mali, when fighters of Islamic State (IS) and Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) clashed near Tin Fadimata village, Gao Cercle, Gao region on the night of March 1, 2024.
Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, Ghana’s closest northern neighbour, became the country with the highest impact from terrorism for the first time, with deaths from terrorism increasing by 68 percent even though attacks decreased by 17 percent. A quarter of all terrorism deaths occurring globally were in Burkina Faso, which is bound to the north and west by Mali, to the south by Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo, and the east by Benin and Niger. “Though Ghana has not yet been hit by terrorism, it faces a significant threat in the wake of the expansion of jihadist terrorism. The attacks in Burkina Faso in recent months have led to the establishment of a curfew in twelve areas of northern Ghana due to their proximity,” Ambassador Inusah underscored.
Inusah noted that the 40-year-old ethnic conflict between the Mamprusi and Kusasi people over a chieftaincy seat in Bawku—an hour’s drive from Burkina Faso’s border with Ghana—has escalated into a war, reportedly involving foreign combatants, leaving more than 30 people dead between December 2022 and April 2023 according to police records. Also, porous borders and numerous contraband smuggling routes have become major threats to the peaceful atmosphere in Ghana as Islamist militants take advantage of political instability in Ouagadougou to expand their frontiers in coastal West Africa from the Sahel region.
Conclusion
Exporting Ghana’s water pollution problem to neighbouring countries risks imposing not only serious health and livelihood-threatening environmental consequences but also economic consequences which could, in turn, have dire, knock-on dire effects on defence, agricultural production, poverty reduction and the security of states in the Sahel, where extremism already prevails. As a result of illegal small-scale gold mining activities in Ghana, the governments of neighbouring countries would have to spend more of their GDP fighting pollution, reclaiming lands with gaping pits and excavations, treating water contaminated with mercury and other chemicals used in galamsey operations in Ghana. Galamsey operations could serve as a very conducive and fertile ground for terrorists in the region to regroup, recoup and rejuvenate. It offers a perfect lair and a disguise for extremists. Lone wolves and terrorist cells can use galamsey to while away time, while waiting for their next operation. The impact on agriculture could trigger famine in climate change-devastated areas. Fights over concessions could also involve mercenaries and terrorists whose interests are far from saving and preserving the lives of ordinary citizens. In the end, an age-old activity invented by our forebears centuries ago, would become our nemesis.
