The Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, has said there is no real fight against illegal mining, popularly known as galamsey, in the country.
According to him, what the government has been doing are activities that only create an impression of seriousness without results.
“There is no fight against galamsey today. Galamsey is worse today,” he said on TV3’s The KeyPoints on September 12, 2026.
“They are doing things to represent something. We are doing a lot of activities suggesting we are doing something. An activity is not progress,” Mr. Bentil stressed.
Background: Galamsey Crisis Under Mahama Administration
Mr. Bentil’s comments come as President John Dramani Mahama’s government faces growing pressure over its handling of the galamsey menace, which continues to destroy water bodies, forest reserves and cocoa farms.
President Mahama, in his 2026 State of the Nation Address (SONA) on February 27, 2026, described galamsey as a grave threat and said the fight requires a multi-dimensional response involving enforcement, technology, regulation and community participation.
Government says it has:
– Registered 1,808 earth-moving equipment at the ports, with 1,033 fitted with tracking devices
– Deployed *1,634 Blue Water Guards* across 10 regions
– Set up the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) to coordinate operations across 21 hotspots
– Seized hundreds of excavators and reclaimed nine forest reserves
– Deployed specialized prosecutorial teams to fast-track over 114 galamsey cases
President Mahama has also maintained that no mining license has been issued for forest reserves since January 2025, and that government will amend, not repeal, LI 2462 which allowed mining in forest reserves.
Despite these measures, critics say the situation on the ground has worsened. Civil Society groups, including the Media Coalition Against Galamsey and FixTheCountry Movement, have demanded a state of emergency under Article 31, but President Mahama rejected the call in his first media encounter, saying: “We’ve not exhausted the powers we even have without a state of emergency.”
