There are some battles a government cannot afford to lose.
For Ghana, the war against illegal mining popularly known as galamsey is one of them.
It is a battle over the country’s rivers, forests, farmlands and, ultimately, the future of generations yet unborn. For the last eight years, illegal mining has expanded from scattered activities into sophisticated networks capable of challenging state authority, destroying water bodies and leaving once-productive lands severely degraded.
It is against this daunting background that President John Dramani Mahama’s decision to entrust the Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources to Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah assumes particular significance.
Buah is widely regarded by those who have worked closely with him as a politician whose personal integrity and reputation for honesty have remained largely unblemished. In a battle where enormous financial interests are at stake, that reputation could prove to be one of his greatest assets.
The fight against galamsey requires more than speeches, policy documents and occasional military operations. It requires a Minister capable of standing firmly against powerful interests, resisting inducements and insisting that the nation’s natural resources must serve the broader public good.
And increasingly, the evidence suggests that Ghana’s approach is moving in that direction.
The country has shifted towards what can best be described as a sustained enforcement-and-restoration model—combining arrests, equipment seizures, river patrols, permanent security deployments, protection of forest reserves and reclamation of degraded lands.
The figures tell a compelling story
The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) reported the destruction of 2,647 Changfang platforms during its first ten months of operations, alongside the seizure and immobilization of hundreds of excavators.
The operations have also resulted in 237 arrests, including 144 foreign nationals, signaling a deliberate attempt to move beyond merely destroying equipment to targeting the people and networks financing and operating illegal mining activities.
This is important.
For years, the galamsey debate has focused heavily on the destruction of machines at mining sites. But sophisticated illegal mining operations do not exist simply because excavators and Changfang machines are available. Behind them are financiers, operators, suppliers, collaborators and networks that must be dismantled if the war is to produce lasting results.
NAIMOS is therefore increasingly deploying intelligence-led operations involving the Military, Police, Immigration and intelligence agencies.
The strategy is also becoming more permanent.
Rather than relying solely on sporadic raids, the authorities are moving towards permanent deployments and dedicated operational bases in some of the country’s major mining hotspots.
Perhaps even more significant is the deployment of the Blue Water Guards.
By May 2026, 2,071 personnel had been trained and deployed nationwide to patrol rivers, identify illegal mining sites and report activities.
Their presence is being felt along some of Ghana’s most important water systems, including the Ankobra, Pra and Birim rivers.
Reports indicate improvements in water systems in almost every district where the Blue Water Guards have been deployed.
That development goes to the heart of the galamsey crisis.
Ghana cannot afford to protect its rivers only after they have been destroyed. Prevention, permanent surveillance and rapid intervention must become the new normal.
The battle is also moving into the forests.
Recent operations in the Atiwa Forest Reserve resulted in the destruction of 15 makeshift structures and 11 water-pumping machines, demonstrating that enforcement is increasingly extending beyond riverbanks to environmentally sensitive forest areas.
But enforcement alone cannot restore what has already been destroyed.
That is why reclamation matters.
More than 800 acres of degraded land have reportedly been subjected to reclamation works under the government’s programme, including areas around Manso-Nkwanta and Ellembelle.
These interventions suggest a recognition that the galamsey war is not simply about stopping illegal miners. It is also about rebuilding the ecological damage left behind.
There is, however, a need for honesty about the scale of the challenge.
Ghana has not won the war yet.
Illegal miners continue to adapt, and NAIMOS itself has acknowledged that the country is “not out of the woods yet.”
But perhaps that is precisely why the present approach deserves attention. The more credible argument is not that galamsey has been defeated. It is that Ghana is making measurable progress and the state is increasingly gaining ground.
And it places an enormous responsibility on Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah.
If integrity is indeed one of his strongest attributes, then this may be the moment for that quality to translate into national service.
President Mahama may therefore have chosen Buah not merely because he is politically experienced, but because the galamsey war requires something deeper—a minister prepared to confront entrenched interests, enforce the law without fear or favour and protect Ghana’s natural resources as a sacred national trust.
The machines may be destroyed today. The real victory, however, will come when the rivers run clean again, forests are protected, degraded lands become productive and illegal mining ceases to be a viable business model. That is the war Buah has inherited.
For more news, join The Chronicle Newspaper channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VbBSs55E50UqNPvSOm2z
