Legal scholar and public intellectual Professor Stephen Kwaku Asare, popularly known as Kwaku Azar, has called for a decisive national response to illegal mining, describing its financiers as economic terrorists destroying the natural foundations of life in Ghana.
Prof. Asare, in a strongly-worded post on Facebook on Sunday, October 12, 2025, said Ghana continues to treat galamsey as an ordinary crime instead of a national security and ecological emergency.
“We are fighting galamsey like it is an ordinary crime. We go to the sites, arrest a few people, parade them, arraign them, then there’s bail, and the case joins the traffic-choked highway of justice,” he lamented.
He criticized the state’s failure to target those who fund illegal mining, arguing that the financiers are the true culprits.
“As for the financiers, we hardly touch them. And if we do, they get elite treatment. But the financiers of galamsey are not merely breaking mining laws; they are committing ecocide – the deliberate destruction of the natural foundations of life.”
According to him, every ounce of illegal gold mined comes at the cost of human and environmental wellbeing.
“Every ounce of illegal gold costs a river its soul, a child their health, and a community its future. They are economic terrorists whose greed destroys water security, food security, and moral security all at once.”
To tackle the problem, Prof. Asare proposed the launch of Operation Mercury-Ghana, a joint military-civilian effort modeled after Peru’s anti-mining initiative.
“This should be a coordinated military-civilian operation targeting illegal-mining supply chains. Go after the mercury, fuel, excavators, chamfan, and cash,” he wrote.
He said the operation must not end at arrests and equipment seizures but should include occupation of mining sites to prevent re-entry.
“Peru’s Operation Mercury cut deforestation by over 90 percent. We can do the same if we go after the financiers, reclaim, remediate, and occupy the sites.”
Prof. Asare urged Parliament to enact a Domestic Ecocide Law under a certificate of urgency to criminalize organized environmental destruction and hold financiers accountable.
He also called for amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Act (Act 1044, 2020), the introduction of Unexplained Wealth Orders, and expanded powers for asset forfeiture.
He further proposed that mercury trafficking be criminalized, excavator licensing tightly regulated, and the importation of chamfans and water pumps banned with strict border enforcement.
“We must meet them boot for boot. We cannot fight galamsey using the Queensberry rules,” he declared.
Prof. Asare recommended the creation of Ecocide Courts within the High Court to fast-track environmental crime cases, ensuring that trials conclude within 90 days.
He also called for strict bail conditions, automatic asset forfeiture, and enhanced sentencing, including life imprisonment without the possibility of pardon for convicted financiers.
Beyond punishment, Prof. Asare said seized assets should be redirected into land reclamation and youth employment in sustainable industries.
“Seized excavators can be repurposed for national development and the youth trained to operate them for road construction, reclamation, and public works projects that build rather than destroy.”
He also called for lifetime bans preventing convicted financiers and their political patrons from funding or holding public office.
“Those who profit from poisoned rivers or protect those who do have already corrupted the public trust; they cannot be trusted to hold it.”
Prof. Asare called for moral and national awakening in the fight against galamsey.
“Galamsey financiers have declared war on our rivers, our soil, and our people. They have sown the wind and they must reap the whirlwind,” he said.
