Dozens of people are feared dead at Akrokeri in the Adansi North District of the Ashanti Region following a galamsey pit collapse.
According to online news portal, MyNewsGh.com, the accident happened on Thursday morning.
Reports indicate that the tragedy happened at the center of the Akrokeri town where majority of the inhabitants reside.
The town has been thrown into a state of pandemonium as locals struggle to remove the rubble to rescue the trapped artisanal miners.
Though the number of people trapped in the pit remains unknown, a survivor who could barely talk has indicated that they were a lot.
Further reports also say residents of the of the town disclosed that the miners dug the pit in pretense of constructing a manhole to divert choked fecal matter from the public toilet, but sneaked in at night to mine for gold.
Artisanal mining, or galamsey as it’s popularly known, has been banned across the country by the Nana Akufo-Addo government since 2017.
The collapse of pits in these illegal activities have been happening quite often in recent times.
In April 2019, three men lost their lives after a mining pit collapsed on them at Manso Assamang in the Amansie West District of the Ashanti Region.
According to the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the three men died instantly.
Joseph Appiah Kusi, Operations Director for NADMO in the district said the collapsed pit was an abandoned one and three men have gone to mine in there.
