ACCRA, Ghana: Ghana’s Defence and Environment Ministers were among eight people killed in a military helicopter crash on Wednesday, the presidency said, hours after the aircraft carrying three crew members and five passengers disappeared from radar.
Edward Omane Boamah became President John Mahama’s defence minister earlier this year shortly after Mahama’s swearing-in in January.
Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed was serving as the minister of environment, science and technology.
Everyone onboard was killed in the accident, authorities said.
“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.
A medical doctor by training, Boamah’s career in government included stints as communications minister during Mahama’s previous 2012-2017 tenure. Before that, he was the deputy minister for environment.
The Ghanaian Armed Forces had reported earlier Wednesday that an air force helicopter had fallen off radar after taking off from Accra just after 9:00 am.
It had been headed towards the town of Obuasi, northwest of the capital.
The statement had said that three crew and five passengers were aboard, without specifying at the time that the ministers were among them.
Alhaji Muniru Mohammed, Ghana’s deputy national security coordinator and former agriculture minister, was among the dead, along with Samuel Sarpong, vice chairman of Mahama’s National Democratic Congress party.
As Ghana has pursued increased diplomacy with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, Boamah led a delegation to Ouagadougou in May.
He had been set to release a book titled “A Peaceful Man in an African Democracy”, about former president John Atta Mills, who died in 2012.
All flags were to be flown at half-staff, Debrah said, while the presidency said Mahama had cancelled his official activities for the day.
