Pursuit of yellow wealth sees blood spilt

KOFI held his pregnant wife Grace. It had been just a few months since they married.

He disappeared into the Ghanaian bush carrying his chisel.

Just a few hours later Grace found herself face to face with her husband again. He was bleeding to death after being savagely mauled by security dogs allegedly set on him for trespassing mining company lands.

Kofi Sarpong’s case is one of dozens levelled by human rights campaigners against large-scale Ghanaian mining companies. Other alleged abuses include shootings, beatings and torture.

Grace recalls the night 11 years ago when Kofi went to the mine owned by AngloGold Ashanti. “I was afraid for him but there was no work to care for his family... We heard cries and gun shots from the mine. I was terrified... He was taken to hospital. But when I got there, he had given up the ghost.”

AngloGold Ashanti corporate affairs manager John Owusu said security guards had no record of Kofi’s injuries.

Kwaku Addae, 46, tells how heavy handed measures were used in the 1990s to move villagers off their land. After farmers began protesting, guards fired into the crowds. “I got caught by one bullet,” said the cocoa farmer.

The mine company eventually paid for an operation to repair his leg and gave him 160 cedis (€83) for his two acres of land.

This project was funded by the SIMON CUMBERS MEDIA CHALLENGE fund, supported by Irish Aid.