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 reports suggest 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 saddly drown in the process aswell.
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”.
Paul Kata, an Assembly Member for Wassa Dunkwa have also confirmed the tragic news incident.
In related news, nine illegal miners, commonly known as galamseyers, have been confirmed dead in a mining pit collapse.
Reports suggest the incident occurred at Atta Ne Atta, a community in the Asutifi South District of the Ahafo Region.
According to reports by JoyNews’ Erastus Asare Donkor, the death toll has been revised to nine, following an earlier report of the casualties being ten.
The information gathered from the Hospital authorities detailed that one of the dead bodies was mistakenly counted as related to the mining pit collapse.
About four miners are currently on admission at the St. Elizabeth Catholic Hospital, Hwidiem, with an undisclosed number of miners still believed to have been at the site at the time of the collapse are yet to be retrieved.
Reports suggest rescue efforts and assessments are ongoing.
In an earlier post shared by JOY NEWS journalist, Jacqueline Ansomah Yeboah, she wrote, “10 illegal miners have been confirmed dead and
30 in critical condition after a mine cave-in at Manso Tontokrom in the Ashanti region.
An undisclosed number of illegal miners were still buried under.
The injured have been admitted to the Hwidiem hospital”.
See the post below:
MOTHER, THREE CHILDREN DROWN IN ABANDONED GALAMSEY PIT AT WASSA DUNKWA
— Jacqueline Ansomah Yeboah (@Shejackiesays) March 2, 2026
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… pic.twitter.com/ZWrllfLRLc