Ghana's defence, environment ministers killed in helicopter crash

Ghanas defence and environment ministers were killed in a helicopter crash Wednesday the presidency said hours after the armed forces reported a chopper carrying three crew and five passengers dropped off the radarTelevision station Joy News broadcast cell phone footage from the crash scene showing smouldering wreckage amid a heavily forested area earlier in the day before it was revealed that ministers Edward Omane Boamah and Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among the deadBoamah became President John Mahamas defence minister earlier this year shortly after Mahamas swearingin in JanuaryMuhammed was serving as the minister of environment science and technologyEveryone onboard was killed in the accident authorities said while Ghanaian media reported that the helicopter was on its way to an event on illegal mining a major environmental issue in the west African countryThe president and government extend our condolences and sympathies to the families of our comrades and the servicemen who died in service to the country said Mahamas chief of staff Julius DebrahBoamah was leading Ghanas defence ministry at a time when jihadist activity across its northern border in Burkina Faso has become increasingly restiveWhile Ghana has so far avoided a jihadist spillover from the Sahel unlike neighbours Togo and Benin observers have warned of increased arms trafficking and of militants from Burkina Faso crossing the porous border to use Ghana as a rear baseA medical doctor by training Boamahs career in government included stints as communications minister during Mahamas previous 20122017 tenure Before that he was the deputy minister for environmentMahama was down down emotionally Haruna Iddrisu Ghanas education minister told reporters outside the presidency after news broke of the crashThe Ghanaian Armed Forces had reported earlier Wednesday that an air force helicopter had fallen off radar after taking off from Accra just after 900 am local time 0900 GMT It had been headed towards the town of Obuasi northwest of the capitalThe statement had said that three crew and five passengers were aboard without specifying at the time that the ministers were among themAlhaji Muniru Mohammed Ghanas deputy national security coordinator and former agriculture minister was among the dead along with Samuel Sarpong vice chairman of Mahamas National Democratic Congress partyMuhammed the environment minister was at the helm as the country battles a scourge of illegal informal gold mining that has ravaged farmlands and contaminated waterGalamsey as the practice is locally known has been threatening cocoa production in particular and became a major issue in the election that saw Mahama elected last yearThe establishment earlier this year of the Ghana Gold Board and the banning of foreigners from the local gold trade were seen as the first concrete signs of a crackdown on the practice by the new administrationAs Ghana has pursued increased diplomacy with Burkina Faso Mali and Niger all ruled by juntas who have broken with the ECOWAS west African regional bloc Boamah led a delegation to Ouagadougou in MayHe had been set to release a book titled A Peaceful Man in an African Democracy about former president John Atta Mills who died in 2012All flags were to be flown at halfmast Debrah said while the presidency said Mahama had cancelled his official activities for the dayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever