Abrewa Ne Nkran raid: The galamsey community had over 10,000 residents engaged in criminal enterprises

The Western Regional Manager of the Forestry Commission, Nana Poku Bosompim has revealed that the residents of Abrewa Ne Nkran galamsey community number over 10,000 comprising various West Africa Nationals.

According to him, the settlement was full of well-organized criminal enterprises.

“There were around 10,000 people living there,” Nana Poku Bosompim said. “But it wasn’t a community. It was more like a slum — think Sodom and Gomorrah.”

Nana Poku Bosompim revealed that during the operation on April 15, authorities discovered an alarming pattern of many of the inhabitants being foreign nationals, including individuals from Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire.

But among them were also Ghanaians, particularly from the northern regions of the country.

“When we started arresting people, most of them were ECOWAS nationals,” he said.

Speaking on the KeyPoints with Alfred Ocansey on April 19, he revealed that the place was built with planks and scrap wood.

The slum, before its destruction, was a central hub for illegal mining, human trafficking, and a thriving underground economy fueled by sex work.

At the heart of this operation was a private militia known as ‘the Bulldogs’, who maintained strict control over the settlement.

“The Bulldogs were running the show,” Nana Poku Bosompim said.

“They were armed with rifles and pump-action guns. They imposed a daily toll on illegal miners. Some miners paid GH?200; others paid GH?500. It was like a cartel running its own business. They even chased away licensed mining companies,” he revealed.

Despite several previous attempts to dismantle the slum, it always reappeared, more fortified and resistant each time.

However, in this recent operation, authorities deployed a joint force, supported by the military, to completely uproot the settlement.

“It wasn’t just men mining either; it was a whole system of young people being recruited into the trade.”

But perhaps the darkest aspect of the operation was the discovery of nine makeshift brothels hidden within the slum, mostly occupied by young girls trafficked from Nigeria.

One such girl, Nana Poku Bosompim revealed, came from Nigeria who had been promised work but instead was told by her “madam” that she had to pay off a ?40,000 debt through prostitution.

“Every day, she was forced to sleep with between five and ten men,” he shared.

“When she finally paid off the money, they threw drinks on her and told her she had graduated and could now become a madam herself. It wasn’t a ceremony; it was just a small celebration in the forest.”

These brothels, built from crude wood and hidden among the trees, symbolized the horrific system that preyed on the vulnerable and profited from their exploitation.

Although the existence of the slum had been known to authorities, its full scale was a shock.

“We knew about it, but we didn’t realize how deep it went,” Nana Poku Bosompim admitted.

“The Bulldogs had established a government of their own. We couldn’t even enter the area without military backup.”

In the aftermath of the operation, he confirmed that the settlement had been cleared, and the land was handed over to the Forestry Commission.

“They called it Jerusalem in the forest,” Nana Poku Bosompim reflected.

“But there was nothing holy about what was happening there,” he noted.

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