The West Africa Action Network on Small Arms has observed a weak regulatory regime for small arms and light weapons are festering the proliferation of arms among illegal miners in Ghana.

Security swoops at illegal mining sites have often led to the retrieval of arms and ammunition used for the protection of their illegal activities.

Network President, Ken Kinney, says the Arms and Ammunition Act, 1962 lacks capacity to effectively check gun culture which is on the rise.

The United Nations estimates about 875 million small arms in the world, one for every ten people on earth.

 At least fifty-nine percent of arms are in the hands of civilians, with at least ten billion ammunition being manufactured annually.

 Ken Kinney says their findings are pointing to the high use of arms among illegal miners.

“The galamsey activities are really linked to arms because they are protecting what they are putting in there. So the bill will be able to make sure that it regulates those who own arms and the quantity of arms civilians want to own”, he said.

Ghana’s arms legislation is identified as one of the weakest legislation that does not prevent money laundering for the financing of terrorism.

Though the country has signed and ratified over ten different gun control instruments, domesticating the laws remains a challenge.

The use of arms in illegal mining

Illegal gold mining continues to wreak havoc on the environment despite the government's attempt to halt the operations of illegal miners.

According to the West African Action Network, illegal mining sites have become a haven for arms.

In their bid to be protected against public intrusion and robbery, galamsey mine securities, mostly thugs, often arm themselves with small arms.

In some instances, journalists and other public interest advocates researching into the dangers posed by the illegality are threatened with these arms.

Erastus Asare Donkor is an Environmental Journalist who has over the years exposed some illegal mining activities in some of the country’s protected forest reserves.

In line of duty, the journalist has been threatened by gun-wielding men protecting some miners who have illegally destroyed forests.

“When my team was attacked recently at a location near Manso Nkran, there were over fifteen heavily built men who all had pump action and other assault rifles with ammunition and you wonder where they got there from”, he said.

Mr. Asare Donkor added, “In 2018 when a government task force I worked with raided the Apamprama Forest Reserve, the Chinese who were mining there illegal had over fifteen pump action riffles which they were using to protect themselves. They had ammunitions which could last them a month.”

It is believed that most of the illegal miners after their operations leave the arms in the hands of local workers.

According to Mr. Asare Donkor, unlicensed arms are becoming common in mining communities.

“After these people leave the forests they leave the guns behind and sometimes fall in the hands of the locals. In the Manso enclave, crime rate continues to increase”, he added.

Dealing with proliferation of arms

 The Arms and Ammunitions Act, 1962, is silent on ammunitions and puts no limits to the number of arms that could be owned by an individual.

Other aspects like licensing and ownership remain weak despite the increasing gun culture.

Mr. Kinney says new legislation to regulate access and handling of arms, when passed to law, could help deal with the situation.

“We are pushing for the passage of the Arms Bill of 2023, Ghanaians will have to understand the bill and  help us push the passage of the bill into law”, he said.

He added, “the bill is very comprehensive, it takes into consideration all the gaps in the existing regulation”.