According to Ghana’s government, all eight of the eight people on board a helicopter crashed, including the country’s defense and environment ministers, were killed.
According to Julius Debrah, chief of staff to President John Mahama, the crash happened in the southern Ashanti region of the nation on Wednesday, which included Environment Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed.
The government and the president express their grief and condolences to the families of our fellow countrymen and soldiers who lost their lives in the service of the country, Debrah said.
Samuel Sarpong, vice chairman of Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Alhaji Mohammad Muniru Limuna, deputy national security coordinator and former minister of agriculture, were also among the victims.
At the same time as armed groups in Burkinabe’s northern border were becoming more restive, Boamah was in charge of Ghana’s defense ministry.
Unlike neighboring Togo and Benin, where the Sahel has historically been a rebel spillover, observers have been concerned about increased arms trafficking and the use of Burkinabe fighters as a backbone by Burkinabe residents.
Boamah’s career in government included stints as communications minister during Mahama’s previous 2012-2017 tenure, which was a medical doctor by training. He served as the environment’s deputy minister before that.
Boamah led a delegation to Ouagadougou in May as Ghana pursued more diplomatic relations with Burkinabe, Mali, and Niger, all of whom are ruled by military-backed regional blocs that have sided with the ECOWAS West African region.
A Peaceful Man in an African Democracy, a book about former president John Atta Mills, who passed away in 2012, was set to be published by him.
An air force helicopter went off radar shortly after 9:00 am (09:00 GMT), according to a report released by the Ghanaian Armed Forces on Wednesday. It was heading northwest of the capital’s town of Obuasi.
Without specifying at the time that the ministers were on board, the statement stated that three crew members and five passengers were aboard.
Source: Aljazeera
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