17th January 2025 2:06:40 PM
2 mins readTwo individuals, including a farmer and a hired enforcer, tragically lost their lives following a violent confrontation on Thursday in Kraboa, a rural community within the Ayensuano District of the Eastern Region.
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The altercation began when aggrieved farmers, angered by the damage inflicted on their farmlands by sand mining operations, erected a barricade to block the transport of extracted sand.
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Eyewitnesses reported that tensions escalated when armed guards hired by the sand miners allegedly opened fire on the protesters.
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In response, the farmers retaliated, resulting in a deadly clash. One farmer was fatally shot, and a land enforcer, who was severely beaten and left unconscious, later passed away from his injuries.
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According to an eyewitness “In the morning, the local chief, Yaw Asiedu, accompanied by some landguards, came here. For about a month, they have been invading our farms with machines to mine sand. They are destroying our crops, especially cassava, which we hoped to harvest since our maize didn’t grow well.
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...We protested, and the police came to intervene, but the landguards later returned in the evening, firing shots. They killed one person and injured five others. The injured have been rushed to Koforidua for medical attention to remove bullets.”
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The eyewitness further noted that a group of approximately 50 landguards, allegedly led by the chief, arrived in a convoy of vehicles and motorcycles.
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Amid the turmoil, one of the landguards lost his life. However, residents allege that the Coaltar Police prioritized transporting the injured landguard to the hospital, neglecting the native who had been shot.
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The Ayensuano District has long struggled with illegal sand-winning operations, which frequently spark violent confrontations between farmers and sand miners. These activities are often accompanied by armed landguards who intimidate residents and devastate farmlands.
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This recent clash has exacerbated tensions in the area, prompting residents to demand swift government action to curb the illegal sand-winning activities and safeguard their community.
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