Dr Hanna Louisa Bisiw-Kotei, the Administrator of the Minerals Development Fund (MDF), has revealed that along the line during her galamsey fight last year, she got poisoned.
According to Dr Bisiw-Kotei, she survived the poisoned attack by the grace of God.
Speaking on GHOne on Thursday, March 12, 2026, Dr Bisiw-Kotei stated, “Along the line, I got poisoned, but by the grace of God, I survived”.
She further shared the galamsey challenges facing the nation, “When we go to the field, we know the numbers that come. On my phone, sometimes when I see pictures, I don’t even want to open.
“We are still working. When we came, I needed time to get to know myself so that when setting up the structures to work, then I know which structure is needed. Now we have regional zonal coordinators,” she stressed.
“We have northern zone A, northern zone B, then we have middle belt A, middle belt B. Then we have the co-staff, and we have the coordinators. We have a national coordinator, and we are working on the ground, but of course, I can’t be in the field all the time as the administrator.
My guys are there, and we are collaborating. We are still arresting, and they [galamseyers] are still doing it, and we are making sure that they do not take the lead,” she concluded.
In related news, a mother and her three sons have drowned in an abandoned illegal mining (galamsey) pit.
Reports suggest the 42-year-old mother and the three children drowned in an abandoned galamsey pit at Wassa Dunkwa in the Amenfi West Municipality of the Western Region.
The information gathered suggests the tragic incident occurred on Saturday afternoon when the family apparently went to gather firewood from the galamsey site.
An eyewitness report suggests the children, after gathering the firewood and placing it by the roadside, decided to swim in a nearby pit when they began to drown.
The mother, noticing the distress of her children, rushed in to rescue them and sadly drowned in the process as well.
Their bodies have since been retrieved and conveyed to the morgue at the Catholic Hospital in Asankragwa, while the Police in Asankrangwa have initiated a probe into the incident.
In a post shared by JOYNEWS, Jacqueline Ansomah Yeboah she wrote, “MOTHER, THREE CHILDREN DROWN IN ABANDONED GALAMSEY PIT AT WASSA DUNKWA.
A routine search for firewood turned tragic for a family of four at Wassa Dunkwa on Saturday afternoon.
The 42-year-old mother and her three sons had gone to an area near an illegal mining site to fetch dried cocoa trees for firewood, a common practice among residents.
Eyewitnesses say after gathering the wood and placing it by the roadside, the children moved toward a nearby abandoned galamsey pit filled with water and decided to swim.
Moments later, they began to struggle in the water.
Their mother rushed in to save them, but sadly drowned alongside her children.
The incident has once again highlighted the dangers posed by uncovered and unprotected illegal mining pits across communities in the Western Region”.
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