According to reports, 33 individuals have been detained for last week's demolition of Golden Star Wassa Mine properties in Benso,Western Area.

The company's employees were forced to flee for their safety after the illegal miners reportedly set 12 vehicles on fire, including pick-up trucks, ambulances, and excavators.

The Head of Group Corporate Affairs of the company, Gerard Hillary Osei Boakye earlier narrated to Citi News, how they were attacked.

“We usually do our patrols to protect our concession which is required of us by law to be responsible for our boundaries and also prevent incursions, to make sure that community people, hunters, and farms are safe. On one such occasion which was Thursday, March 16, we encountered some illegal miners encroaching, we engaged them as part of our modus operandi and told them to move away”.

“They were interested in that area, so they came back and when they came back, we tried to ward them off with the help of the police. They dispersed again and apparently unconfirmed report reaching us is that they may have been injured in the cause of being dispersed. That probably infuriated them, and they came back to torch our vehicles and ran our security post down, destroyed our offices, basically burnt things down,” he explained.