Over 300 individuals alleged to have attacked members of the National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS), officials of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), and journalists at Dadwene and Hwidiem in the Ashanti and Ahafo Regions have been remanded for two weeks. They are expected to reappear in court on Thursday, 27th November 2025.

The suspects were arrested in a joint military-police operation on Wednesday, November 12. In a similar exercise, officials also conducted operations in Ehi in the Volta Region. On Saturday, November 1, officials of NAIMOS narrowly escaped death in a mob assault at Hwidiem in the Ahafo Region.

The officials came under violent attack while carrying out their day-to-day activities as part of efforts to crack down on illegal mining in the Ahafo Region.

The operation resulted in the arrest of several miners, including a Burkinabe national. Locals were seen in a video, which has since gone viral, confronting the anti-mining task force and calling for the release of those arrested during the operation.

Speaking to the media, NAIMOS spokesperson Paa Kwesi Schandorf described the attack as “extremely and profoundly disappointing,” adding, “It was a huge surprise that the locals became agitated, demanding the release of those arrested, and then began attacking the NAIMOS team.”

According to him, the officials “survived clearly by the mercy of God. If you look at how they were charged, the rest of the team could have lost their lives.”

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asutifi North, Ebenezer Kwaku Addo, has been accused of inciting the mob against the NAIMOS team.

Earlier this month, two journalists sustained severe injuries following an alleged violent attack by a group of miners at Dadwene, a community near Obuasi in the Ashanti Region.

The victims were part of a team of journalists who had accompanied the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on an anti-illegal mining operation at Dadwene.

The operation resulted in the closure of many shops at Anhwia Nkwanta. Speaking to the media, the EPA's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Professor Nana Ama Klutse, noted that, as a result of the violent incident, the EPA officers and journalists were forced to retreat for safety, heading toward their vehicles.

However, one of the vehicles was involved in a collision after the team made their way through Afari. Giving further details, the EPA's CEO disclosed that they were unable to retreat despite being accompanied by a military escort.

She explained that the army officers could not retaliate due to the intensity of the situation. According to her, the military escort advised them to flee the scene because their opponents were heavily armed illegal miners.

She added, “So we closed down many shops at Anhwia Nkwanta, and today (Thursday, November 6) we were on another route to close down some other shops. On our way near Obuasi, we saw galamsey happening on the ground, so we decided to have a look at what they were doing. When we stopped and walked into the area, as we were getting closer, they were running away, and all of them had left by the time we got there.

“So we looked around for what we could pick, and we did pick. While leaving, we saw that there were actually more of the excavators—three—that were inside a river body; they had mined in the river and blocked it in such a way that it had taken different tributaries around the area and flooded some places. It was messy. It was really a bad situation. So we had actually gone to the car and used another route to the place, and while we were there, the people also ran. We called them to come, and just before we could have a conversation, they sent news around, and soon we saw built men; a number of them came with guns.

“We had the military with us, and the national security was also with us, but then we saw that we couldn’t exchange fire or fight them, so we had to run for our lives. In the course of running and speeding on the road, we encountered this accident.

“One of the cars, which had some EPA staff and some of the journalists, had a head-on collision with a truck that was actually carrying some pipes for galamsey operations. Some of the heavily built men were dressed in black with ‘CID’ written at the back. The soldiers and the national security men asked them for their ID cards, but it became confrontational, and so we had to leave because they said they could not overpower them, so we had to leave.

“While they were having the confrontation, we got intel from Accra that we should leave immediately where we were and that even the route we planned to take, we should not use it again, and we should not return on the same route we came from Kumasi to Obuasi. So we had to use another route altogether, much longer, through the Western Region and the Central Region to Kumasi. But just before we reached Kumasi, that’s when we had the head-on collision.”

The Ashanti Regional Correspondent for Media General, Ibrahim Abubakar, reportedly escaped the incident. Adom News reporter and Channel One TV’s Ashanti Regional Correspondent, Doris Lonta, were also part of the team.