According to reports, 33 people were arrested last week for vandalizing properties belonging to the Golden Star Wassa Mine in Benso, Western Region.
The illegal miners are said to have set ablaze 12 vehicles, including excavators, ambulances, and pick-up trucks, forcing the company’s employees to flee for their lives.
Gerard Hillary Osei Boakye, the company’s Head of Group Corporate Affairs, previously told reporters how they were attacked.
“We usually do our patrols to protect our concession which is required of us by law to be responsible for our boundaries and also prevent incursions, to make sure that community people, hunters, and farms are safe.
On one such occasion, on Thursday, March 16, we came across some illegal miners encroaching, we engaged them as part of our modus operandi and told them to move away”.
“They were interested in that area, so they came back and when they came back, we tried to ward them off with the help of the police. They dispersed again, and according to unconfirmed reports, they may have been injured as a result of the dispersal. That probably enraged them, and they returned to torch our vehicles, destroy our offices, and basically burn things down,” he explained.
