Peace returns to Anyinasin as excavators leave, ending months of Galamsey tension

Calm has returned to Akyem Anyinasin in the Eastern Region after months of protests against illegal mining, following an intervention by the Ghana Police Service that led to the removal of excavators from the farming community.

The excavator relocation has brought relief to residents who feared their farmlands and water bodies were nearing permanent destruction. The move closes a turbulent chapter that had pitched the people of Anyinasin against their chief, Osabarima Attah Appiahkorang Agyei, once hailed as a defender of his people against illegal mining. He inspired a movement that rallied behind him to burn excavators at an illegal mining site. His declaration on Net 2 TV that illegal miners would be met with deadly force if they dared enter his community won him widespread admiration locally and beyond.

For 87-year-old Maame Abre Nkrumah, a proud cocoa farmer who had watched surrounding villages be decimated by galamsey over the last decade, the chief’s early stance was cause for celebration. She said, “I bowed before him in gratitude and told him you have done well. I am glad we have you as a chief.”  But that reverence would not last.

The community’s disenchantment began when the chief called a meeting and informed residents that an investor wanted to mine in Anyinasin, urging them to be open to what he called “responsible mining,” provided the investor agreed to carry out development projects in the village first.  

The chief defended his position, saying he wanted a good hospital, a market, and schools for the people, and that sitting on mineral wealth while his people wallowed in poverty was not an option. He also revealed he had been under pressure from politicians, fellow chiefs, and even pastors to allow mining.

When the meeting ended without a clear resolution, residents hooted at him in anger as he walked out. They later wrote to invite him to a press conference, but he ignored the letter.

Even as the debate raged, the village was already bearing the scars of mining. Near a stream that once irrigated farmlands, illegal miners had dug deep, gaping holes — some wide enough to swallow a house — with rainwater collecting in them as stagnant pools. Heaps of crushed stones had replaced cocoa trees and food crops, with the fertile topsoil stripped away and replaced by raw gravel and sand incapable of sustaining agriculture.

Police Step In, Calm Restored

The turning point came after publications by The Fourth Estate brought national attention to Anyinasin’s plight. The Ghana Police Service then supervised the relocation of the excavators from the community, a move residents say has transformed the atmosphere in the town.

Before those publications, community members had lived in constant fear that the illegal miners would dig in permanently and devastate their agricultural lands. The removal of the heavy equipment has, for now, eased those anxieties and stopped what had become a boiling crisis.

Anyinasin is predominantly a farming community, and its people have made clear that their land is not for sale. Maxwell Larbi, a native who works in Accra, said, “We know that some people want to bring community mining, but we are saying that we are fine with our cocoa cash crop. Many communities around us have destroyed their lands through galamsey. They depend on us for food. We are kicking against any form of mining. We are okay with our cocoa pods.

While the removal of excavators has brought welcome calm, residents remain watchful.

For now, Anyinasin breathes again. But its people know the fight to protect their land from galamsey is far from over.