A helicopter crash in Ghana’s southern Ashanti region killed the country’s defense and environment ministers along with six others on Wednesday, according to a CNN report citing the Ghanaian president’s chief of staff.
Defense Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed were among the five passengers on board the helicopter, as well as three crew members.
Ghana’s Armed Forces said earlier on Wednesday that it had lost contact with a Z9 helicopter that was en route from the capital of Accra to Obuasi, a mining town in southern Ghana, CNN reported.
Julius Debrah, the chief of staff, said in a video statement that the crash was a “national tragedy” and announced that flags will fly at half-mast until further notice.
He said that Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, Ghana’s acting deputy national security coordinator; Samuel Sarpong, the vice chairman of the National Democratic Congress; and Samuel Aboagye, a former parliamentary candidate, were the three other passengers killed in the crash.
The helicopter’s crew were named as Squadron Leader Peter Bafemi Anala, Flying Officer Malin Twum-Ampadu, and Sgt. Ernest Addo Mensah.
