The Ghana helicopter crash kills the Ministers of Defense and the Environment

Ghana’s Defense and Environment Ministers died in a military helicopter accident in the central region of Ashanti, as well as six other people, said a government spokesman.

Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and the Minister of Sciences and Technology Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, 50, were killed in the accident, that the chief of staff Julius Debrah described as a “national tragedy”.

Earlier, the Ghana armed forces said that the plane, which transported three crews and five passengers, had left “out of the radar”.

He had taken off from the capital, Accra, at 09:12, local time (and GMT) and went to the city of Obuasi for an event to tackle illegal exploitation.

The images allegedly showing that the charred remains of the helicopter circulate on social networks.

The authorities have not confirmed the cause of the accident.

The chief of staff ordered the country’s flags to fly in half-mast.

He carried out condolences to “soldiers who died in service in the country”, on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama and the government.

Ghana’s national security suboordinator and former Minister of Agriculture Alhaji Muniru Mohammed was also among the dead, with Samuel Sarpong, vice-president of the National Democratic Congress Party.

The crew members were appointed the squadron chief Peter Bafemi anal, the manin-manin Twum-Ampadu and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah.

President Mahama felt “depressed, emotionally”, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, was cited by the AFP news agency.

Boamah served under the previous government of Mahama as Minister of Communications and before that, he was Minister of the Environment. As Minister of Defense, he approached a jihadist activity that was preparing at the northern border of Burkina Faso.

Boamah’s book, a peaceful man in an African democracy, on former president John Atta Mills, was to go out later in the year.

Muhammed was at the forefront of the battle against illegal gold extraction, which destroyed the environment and contaminated the rivers and the lakes.

Protests against practice, known locally as Galamsey, culminated during the Mahama race at the presidency last year.