In their attempt to document the environmental damage caused by a mining company's activities in Ghana's Ashanti region, the investigating journalists are attacked and their equipment destroyed.
This statement was originally published on mfwa.org on 22 October 2024.
Armed private guards of Edelmetallum Resources Limited, a mining company near Manso Nkran in the Ashanti region, have attacked a three-man crew of journalists reporting on the destruction of the environment from mining activities.
The crew from the Multimedia Group Limited was assaulted on October 20, 2024, by over ten men armed with pump action guns.
These assailants also seized the equipment of the hapless journalists, including a digital drone, before throwing them out of the mining site.
The victims were made up of reporter Erastus Asare Donkor, Majid Alidu, a drone pilot, camera technician Edward Suantah and driver Edward Arko. They had gone to the site to document the renewed destruction of portions of the newly restored Asenanyo Forest Reserve, leading to the pollution of streams joining the Ankobra River, which have also been polluted.
“We have lodged an official complaint with the Manso Edubia police and our statements were taken. The police issued us with a form to receive medical treatment, and we have returned the doctor’s reports. I am waiting for the next steps by the police to ensure accountability for the unprovoked attack on my team and myself,” Erastus Asare Donkor told the MFWA in a telephone conversation on Monday.
Since then, the Police is said to have attempted to arrest the perpetrators, including two persons who have since been identified as the people who assaulted the journalists but could not because the suspects resisted arrest.
According to this report, which has been corroborated by Erastus Asare Donkor, leader of the media crew that was assaulted, one of the perpetrators even boasted that the current government is their government and so there is nothing that anyone can do to them.
Illegal mining and its disruptive impact on the environment and livelihoods has been a major concern in Ghana lately. The issue has gained a lot of attention from government, the media and civil society. Erastus Asare Donkor has been a tireless reporter on the subject, winning several accolades in the process. He has also been targeted by illegal miners in the past.
On January 15, 2021, a group of hired soldiers and vigilantes in the same Manso mining enclave assaulted the ace environmental reporter and his crew from Luv FM, a subsidiary of the Multimedia Group, at an illegal mining site.
The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) condemns this umpteenth assault on journalists from the Multimedia Group by hired thugs of mining firms. We urge the police at Manso Adubia to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to book in line with the Police’s mandate to maintain law and order.
