Seven Killed By Army At Ghanas Anglogold Ashanti Mine

A Ghanaian small-scale miners association on Sunday said soldiers killed nine unarmed people at an AngloGold Ashanti AU.N, opens new tab mine on Saturday night, while the army said seven illegal miners had been killed in a firefight.

Kofi Adams, local chairman of the Ghana National Association of Small Scale Miners, told Reuters that nine people had been killed and fourteen severely injured in the incident at the Obuasi gold mining site in the West African countrys Ashanti Region.

He said the people had not been armed.

Earlier, Ghanas armed forces said that about 60 illegal miners carrying locally manufactured rifles and other weapons breached the mines security fence at around 11:00 pm 2300 GMT on Saturday and fired on a military patrol deployed there, leading to a shootout.

This is unprecedented and its difficult to understand why this happened, Adams said, noting that in the past, trespassers on the site had been scared off with warning shots.