Two Chinese nationals involved in illegal mining at Aburokyire, a village near Jacobu in the Amansie Central Municipality in the Ashanti Region, are on admission at the Edwin Chase Hospital at Obuasi, following injuries they sustained in an armed robbery attack at their mining sites at the weekend.
According to Deputy Superintendent of Police, Douglas Nkrumah, Commander of the Jacobu Police, Lee Shang, 53, was shot in the leg, while Lee Moning, 35, had his back grazed by bullets in the robbery attack, said to have been carried out by five armed persons.
�At a mining site, far away from town, five young men with pump action guns and a locally manufactured pistol robbed them of their mobile phones, a substantial amount of cash and gold, which value could not be immediately assessed,� DSP Kumah told The Chronicle in a telephone interview.
According to the Police Commander, the robbers shot the legs of Mr. Lee Sang, while pellets grazed the back of Mr. Moning. Both are said to be responding to treatment at the hospital, owned by the gold mining conglomerate, AngloGold Ashanti.
The police have so far made no arrests, but investigations are ongoing. �The mining sites are far away in the bush, and it is difficult tracking robbers down,� said DSP Kumah. �Invariably, [the] robbers are aided by indigenous miners who work with the Chinese.�
A source at Obuasi told The Chronicle that they were as many as 2,000 Chinese nationals working at various mine sites in Amansie Central. �Most of these have no permits to be in the country. They work on illegal concessions, and repatriate their earnings,� he added.
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