The defence and environment ministers of Ghana were killed in a helicopter crash on Wednesday, the Ghanaian president confirmed, hours after the armed forces reported a chopper carrying three crew members and five passengers had vanished off radar.
Edward Omane Boamah was appointed President John Mahama’s defence minister earlier this year, shortly after his swearing-in in January.
Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed was the Minister of Environment, Science, and Technology.
The helicopter crash killed everyone on board, according to police.
“The president and government extend our condolences and sympathies to the families of our comrades and the servicemen who died in service to the country,” said Mahama’s chief of staff, Julius Debrah.
Boamah led Ghana’s defence minister at a period of increased jihadist activity across the country’s northern border in Burkina Faso.
While Ghana has so far avoided jihadist spillover from the Sahel region, unlike neighbours Togo and Benin, observers have warned of increased arms trafficking and militants from Burkina Faso crossing the porous border to use Ghana as a rear base.
Boamah, a medical doctor by background, formerly served as communications minister under Mahama’s administration from 2012 until 2017. Previously, he served as deputy minister of the environment.
The Ghanaian Armed Forces reported earlier Wednesday that an air force chopper had disappeared from radar after taking off from Accra shortly after 9:00 a.m. It was on its way to Obuasi, a town northwest of the city.
The statement stated that there were three crew members and five passengers on board but did not indicate whether the ministers were among them.
Alhaji Muniru Mohammed, Ghana’s deputy national security coordinator and former agricultural minister, died, as did Samuel Sarpong, vice chairman of Mahama’s National Democratic Congress party.
As Ghana has expanded diplomacy with Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, all of which are headed by juntas that have broken from the ECOWAS West African regional grouping, Boamah led a mission to Ouagadougou in May.
He planned to publish a book called “A Peaceful Man in an African Democracy” about former President John Atta Mills, who died in 2012.
According to Debrah, all flags were to be flown at half-staff, and the presidency stated that Mahama had cancelled his official engagements for the day.
