The National Anti-Illegal Mining Operations Secretariat (NAIMOS) has secured the Atwima Mponua Forest Reserve in a bold and professionally executed operation currently underway in the Ashanti Region.
2. On Wednesday 17 September 2025, the Task Force from NAIMOS in close collaboration with troops drawn from the 4th Infantry Battalion of Ghana Army, representative from the Forestry Commission (FC) conducted an operation at Anhwiafutu in the NKAWIE Forest District of the Offin Shelter Belt of the Ashanti Region.
3. Under a tight lipped local intelligence, the NAIMOS led force arrived at the area in the dawn hours of the day, witnessing signs of Excavator tracks all over the community. The marks signaled that several machines had been clearly tracked out of the area hours to the morning and arrival of the Task Force. When the team got to the forest area, there was evidence of massive illegal mining at different parts of the forest.
4. Some illegal miners on site fled on seeing the Task Force. The team consequently conducted series of raids within the Forest destroying several makeshift structures at the sites as follows:
– Retrieved and immobilized 9× Excavators,
– seized 2× Toyota HILUX Pickups and 1× Nissan pickup.
– All these equipment were concealed in the Forest.
5. The Task Force also set ablaze and burnt the following:
– Five (5 ) Chanfang machines,
– Several personal belongings,
– fuel dumps,
– Old excavator engines found at the various sites.
– Seven (7) water pumping machines from the site belonged to the illegal miners.
6. The team subsequently raided a house in the areas which was reportedly accommodating some Foreign Chinese Illegal miners. NAIMOS investigations confirmed that 12 Chinese illegal miners stayed in that house and had fled the house at dawn. A search conducted in the house revealed the following:
18× Excavator batteries
31× Buckets of grease
7× Gas cylinders
1× Mini car washing machine
1× Excavator radiator
7. The 9 Excavators seized were all immobilized because of lack of low bed to convey them out of the Community.
Below are some pictures and videos of the days’s activities
