Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Railway Development Authority (GRDA), Dr. Frederick Appoh, has said the illegal miners destroying rail lines in the Western region have been playing “hide and seek” with the Authority’s task force.
He says the Authority formed a task force in May after observing through their patrols that people were mining about eight kilometers away from the rail lines.
However, his outfit received information just last week concerning the activities of illegal miners that have exposed and destroyed some rail lines.
Speaking on Ghana Tonight on TV3 Monday, October 6, 2025, Dr. Appoh noted that their task force has been patrolling the stretch for the past few months to rid the area of illegal miners but has been unsuccessful.
According to him, the environmental terrorists know when the team comes on patrol and when they do not, making their efforts to get them out of the area futile.
“The thing is that these people understand when the patrol is coming. They know when we are going and they know when not to go there so its like a cat and mouse situation,” he stated.
He observed that the Authority needs to collaborate with other stakeholder ministries, with support from the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), to conduct routine patrols to avert the situation.
“The best approach is that we need a routine task force between the key ministries whereby we have the backing of NAIMOS as having the core mandate to ensure that we deploy.
“This cannot just be a spot check routine. It must be tactical in terms of surveillance, and it must also have a strategy of having a deployment around the entire route, otherwise”, the hide and seek story will continue.
Background
About three kilometres of the 60-kilometer active rail line stretching from Takoradi through Akyem to Nsuta in the Western region has been destroyed by illegal mining activities, halting the Ghana Railway Company’s manganese haulage and other operations.
The damage, which was discovered on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, has affected rail tracks, sleepers, and works at Akyem, a community near Nsuta in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality, while large portions of the land on which the rail line lies are degraded in yet another telling impact of illegal mining, commonly called galamsey.
The destroyed stretch no longer sits on solid ground but hangs over pits dug by the illegal miners, while other sections are covered with sand.
The damage came to the attention of the company only last week when someone passing through the area informed the District Manager about what he had noticed on the ground.
Officials of the Ghana Railway Company said a full-scale assessment would tell whether the damage was restricted to the Akyem area or extended into other places.
The officials estimate that it could cost the company at least US$18 million to repair the damaged portion of the rail line.
Sources say the illegal miners secured the land from local traditional authorities, who have maintained support for the day and night illegal mining activities in the area, which have left the environment seriously damaged.
The miners are said to have acquired the land, including the Ghana Railway Company’s right of way and buffers, in the community.
The galamseyers in the community are said to deploy a technology known locally as “one leg,” which involves the combination of a big water hose and a high-pressure water pump to wash the earth after initial digging by an excavator.
The “one leg” is said to be more deadly in terms of speed of destruction of the environment than the conventional excavators.
Meanwhile, 12 persons have been arrested and are set to be arraigned today, Tuesday, October 7, 2025.
