The Ankobra River has been cleared of thousands of Changfan machines and illegal miners after a year of sustained patrols, Minister for Lands and Natural Resources Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah has said.
Mr Buah made the disclosure on Thursday after joining the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) and Navy Special Forces on a 16-kilometre patrol of the river, from Dominase to Gwira Banso in the Western Region.
The patrol came almost exactly a year after his first inspection of the river in September 2025, when illegal mining was still visibly under way along its banks. This time, he said, the Changfan machines and operators once seen along the stretch were gone.
“It clearly shows that we are turning the corner. We are using more intelligence-led operations. We are being very intentional about these operations, and the results are showing,” he said.
Mr Buah addressed concerns that pollution of the Ankobra was worsening, saying what he observed on the patrol did not support that view. He added, however, that the operations needed to continue if the river was to fully recover and the gains made were to hold.
Director of Operations at NAIMOS, Colonel K.S. Appiah, said the Secretariat had stepped up activity across the Western Region in recent months.
“For the past two months, my 130-man team has conducted special operations across six districts of the Western Region, with 19 operations conducted in August alone. Eleven of these operations were on the Ankobra River. We successfully cleared galamsey operators, destroyed several pieces of mining equipment and arrested several operators,” he said.
