Bekwai youth flee area after invasion by soldiers

Young men in the Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti Region have fled the Koniyaw Forest Reserve leaving behind women and children for fear of arrest.

Armed officers of the 4th infantry battalion in Kumasi were ambushed as they attempted to flush out illegal miners who had taken over Koniyaw Forest Reserve in the Bekwai Municipality of the Ashanti Region.

Two of the soldiers were seriously wounded and sent to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.

Speaking to Citi News, the NADMO Coordinator for Bekwai , Mr. Omar Hudu indicated that all the men who live in the Koniyaw Forest Reserve have evacuated for fear of another military raid.

"The women as well as their children are there but their husbands and fathers are not there” he said.

According to him, majority of the men are living in the bush and some of them have fled to Kumasi, Bekwai and Obuasi for fear of being attacked by the soldiers.

Meanwhile, the Ashanti Regional Military Command has indicated that a full force would be deployed to flush out hundreds of illegal miners in Ashanti Regional Town of Bekwai.