The Minerals Development Fund has moved to crack down on some illegal mining sites around Atetemu Basic School in the Ashanti Region.
Nine excavators and other pumping machines were seized in the process, with five suspects, including four Chinese nationals, arrested.
The Atatam D/A Basic School has the Junior High School and Kindergarten directly opposite each other, with a road going through the middle.
At the time of the visit, learning activities had halted because excavators of the illegal miners were in motion just behind the school.
The Primary School faces a similar challenge on the day.
Teachers say illegal miners have sometimes threatened to pull down the school in search of gold.
Apart from the dangers posed by the activity to the lives of learners, noise from the site makes teaching and learning difficult.
Ama Konadu, a parent in the community, said, “I have a 13-year-old son in the school. I fear for him and others but we can’t do much. They dug just behind the school and we had to fight them with all our might to stop them. But there is some work ongoing there.”
A bird’s view shows a large tract of land at Atatam heavily destroyed by the activities of the illegal miners.
The illegal miners are mining the Jimi and Subri Rivers, which flow through the community are destroying the illegal mining activities.
The devastation has resulted in the loss of livelihoods for the community.
“Some of us are unable to go to our farms because they’ve destroyed them. How do we feed our families?”, Leader of the community, Nana Kofi Sarfo Kantanka asked.
The perpetrators of the crime took to their heels upon knowledge of the presence of the team.
Subsequently, the Chinese nationals were tracked to their hideout, where the weapons and ammunition were picked up.
Administrator for the Minerals Development Fund, Dr. Hannah Bissiw who led the operations, expressed disappointment at the destruction done to the school’s compound.
“Sometimes, our children are not able to attend school because they are cut off by the miners. From what we have seen here, if we are not touched and moved to work, then I don’t know what we really want to do,” she said.
Dr. Bissiw added, “These are some of the things that as a woman it touch my heart. I am a child from the village, so I understand their plight. We need to give these children a chance.”
Meanwhile, the renewed fight against the menace has become a discomfort for some persons involved in the illegality.
Already, some threats are being received by the administrator of the fund, Dr. Hannah Bissiw.
But she is not perturbed by the situation.
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