8-month-old pregnant woman dies in galamsey pit

Source: starrfmonline.com  -  A mining pit has caved in and killed a woman, who is carrying an eight-month-old pregnancy, at Manso Akam, a mining community in the Amanse Central District of the Ashanti region.
Abena Georgina, 25, also known as Maa Abena, died instantly Saturday morning while searching for gold with her colleagues who were in a different pit. According to an eyewitness,

her colleagues raised alarm to the community members after the pit caved in but she was found dead later after scouring through the rubble with an excavator.

According to Starr News’ Ashanti regional correspondent Isaac Bediako Justice, the mother of three was found with her stomach widely open while the fully developed fetus was also lying lifeless.

The remains of the deceased have been deposited at the Agoroyesum Morgue but the fetus was left in the pit, he reported.

It will be recalled that the East Akyem Municipal Health Director Edmund Kaitoo warned against the alarming rate at which pregnant women appear to be choosing galamsey over the health of their unborn babies.

According to him, the women prefer engaging in illegal mining to attending antenatal care.

“We were not able to meet our target for 2014, our coverage was just about 60 percent and we want to get to 80 percent.

“We attribute this to the galamsey activities. Most of the time, we find the women going to do galamsey instead of going to the hospital and they use it as grounds for getting something for their pockets,” he told Starr News in an earlier interview.