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Ghana: Local salt miners clash with Indian salt company

Published by MAC on 2016-01-02
Source: Ghanaweb.com

Local salt miners clash with Indian salt company

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Local-salt-miners-clash-with-Indian-salt-company-398532

4 December 2015

Five local salt miners at Adina in the Ketu South municipality in the Volta Region and three policemen sustained various degrees of injury following a clash between the miners and workers of an Indian salt mining company at the Keta Lagoon.

The injured persons have been referred to the Volta Regional Hospital and the 37 Military Hospital for treatment.

Fourteen people have been arrested in connection with the clash.

The incident occurred when the Indian company, Kessington Salt Factory, began constructing a road which will pass through some of the salt ponds of the local miners.

The miners protested against the execution of the project, since it would affect their sources of livelihood.

They also claimed that the salt mining concession, which is in contention, had been given out to the Indian company without any consultation with the indigenes.

Last Wednesday, the local salt miners escalated their protest by attacking some of the workers of the Indian company and burning an excavator and a tipper truck belonging to the company.

The police intervened to restore order and contain the situation but three of their men sustained injuries in the process.

The Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Peterkin Yentumi Gyinae, said the irate youth had attacked the Kessington Factory in the early hours of Wednesday, adding that those arrested would be put before court as soon as investigations had been completed.

He stated that the presence of a joint force of the police and the military had since brought calm to the area.

He denied reports that one person had died during the clash.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Kessington Salt Factory, Mr Pascal Lamptey, said the Keta-Akatsi Diocese of the Catholic Church had been invited to amicably settle the differences between the local salt miners and the company.

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