Ghanaian police said 14 small-scale miners were killed at Kubekrom-Abease in southwestern part of that country when the pit they were mining in, caved in on them.
Authorities said the 14 were among 19 miners working in the 80-metre deep pit abandoned earlier following government’s moratorium on small-scale mining which came into force in May 2017.
State owned Daily Graphic reported that rescue workers had been able to rescue five survivors from the collapsed pit.
“We visited the site and the information we gathered through the Committee Chairman was that 14 were dead.
“We are trying to retrieve the bodies. There were a few survivors. Those who escaped death are the eyewitnesses so they briefed us,’’ Police Superintendent Atsu Dzineku told Daily Graphic.
Deaths caused by collapsed mining pits are not uncommon in small-scale and illegal mining activities in the West African country.
No fewer than 100 people perished in a collapsed mine pit at Dunkwa-on-Offin near Cape Coast, about 140 km west of the Ghanaian capital, in June 2010.
In 2017 two people died when the mine pit they were working in caved in on them at Akyem Ahwenease in the Eastern Region. (NAN)