The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) has issued a stark warning that the galamsey crisis in Ghana has escalated to a level that threatens national stability, framing it as both an environmental disaster and a human rights emergency.
The alert follows a promotional mission in Ghana from September 29 to October 02, 2025, during which the Commission engaged government officials, civil society organizations, and affected communities.
The Commission, through Commissioner Janet Ramatoulie Sallah-Njie, who oversees human rights promotion in Ghana and serves as Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Women in Africa, reported that illegal mining has heavily polluted water bodies with mercury, devastated cocoa farms crucial for food security and exports, and driven up school dropout rates as children are pulled into mining work.
Galamsey sites have also become centers for child trafficking, sexual exploitation, and other abuses against women and vulnerable populations, forcing them to live in unsafe conditions that endanger health and dignity.
“The entrenched complicity of political actors and compromised security forces has further deepened the crisis,” the Commission said, emphasizing that without bold and coordinated action, Ghana risks long-term instability.
The ACHPR stressed that galamsey has grown beyond an environmental problem into a multi-sectoral crisis affecting public health, education, agriculture, and national security.
Women and children, in particular, bear the harshest consequences, facing exposure to toxic environments, reproductive health complications, and lifelong health issues.
The Commission called on the Ghanaian government to treat the galamsey menace as an existential threat, demanding urgent political will, transparency, and international support, cautioning that failure to act decisively could undermine the country’s democratic and developmental achievements.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh/Fred Duhoe
