President John Dramani Mahama is pointing to nine forest reserves cleared of armed illegal miners as he rejects calls to declare a state of emergency over galamsey.
Speaking to Ghanaians in New York on 25 September 2026, Mahama said he had never promised emergency rule. “I never ever said I’ll declare a state of emergency,” he said, calling such a step a last resort.
The nine reserves he cited are only part of the picture. In June 2025, the government counted 44 of Ghana’s 288 forest reserves as invaded by illegal miners. The nine “red zones” were singled out as the most dangerous because the miners there were heavily armed.
What has changed in the forests
The red-zone campaign has run for more than a year:
- June 2025: On World Environment Day, Mahama said security forces had reclaimed eight of the nine red zones and seized 300 excavators.
- August 2025: Lands and Natural Resources Minister Emmanuel Armah-Kofi Buah said the Forestry Commission had repossessed all nine. He reported that more than 5,500 hectares of forest had been degraded and 1,345 suspects arrested.
- September 2026: In New York, Mahama said soldiers now stay in camps inside the cleared reserves to stop the miners returning. In earlier operations, troops withdrew once a site was cleared.
The case against emergency rule
Mahama’s objection rests on scale. Galamsey is present in 10 of Ghana’s regions, he said, while an emergency works best when it is confined to one area, used to settle the problem and then lifted.
He also pointed to the cost to civil liberties. Under emergency rule, he said, the state can arrest and detain people without charge, and the requirement to bring suspects before a court within 48 hours would not apply. The government still holds that power, he added, but should use it only as a last resort.
Pressure for tougher action has built for more than a year. In October 2025, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference, environmental group A Rocha Ghana and the Ghana Coalition Against Galamsey all urged Mahama to declare an emergency. He replied then that the National Security Council believed the problem could be solved without emergency powers.
Critics have not been persuaded by the New York remarks. A feature article on ModernGhana argued that galamsey already amounts to an emergency because, as Mahama himself acknowledged, the miners are armed and forest guards cannot enter some reserves for fear of their lives.
In June 2025, with eight red zones cleared, Mahama said the government’s focus would move to the remaining 35 invaded reserves.
