{"id":14627,"date":"2025-06-29T15:39:59","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:39:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=14627"},"modified":"2025-06-29T15:40:00","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T15:40:00","slug":"forestry-commission-patrol-team-ambushed-by-illegal-miners-in-jimira-forest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/?p=14627","title":{"rendered":"Forestry Commission Patrol Team Ambushed by Illegal Miners in Jimira Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"373\" height=\"424\" src=\"https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2025\/06\/Forestry.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-14628\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2025\/06\/Forestry.jpeg 373w, https:\/\/uwordpressmedia.blob.core.windows.net\/uwordpressmedia01\/2025\/06\/Forestry-264x300.jpeg 264w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 373px) 100vw, 373px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A Forestry Commission Rapid Response team narrowly escaped death today as about 20 fully armed illegal miners still operating within the Jimira Forest Reserve ambushed and opened fire on them as they embarked on their usual patrol duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Officials of the commission told<strong>&nbsp;JoyNews<\/strong>&nbsp;they had an intel on Saturday, 28 June, 2025 that some illegal miners have invaded Compartment 34 of the Jimira Forest Reserve (Bentiko-Pakyi portion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cApparently, we had made attempts on two occasions to clamp down on illegal miners at the said portion of the Reserve but were prevented by armed thugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe last incident occurred on May 27, 2025, when we visited the area with our Rapid Team supported by 7 police officers from the Nkawie Divisional Police Command,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAt that instance, the armed thugs prevented the team from accessing the reserve.\u201d He hinted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Saturday\u2019s exercise was carried out by the Rapid Response Team and other officers totalling 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While approaching the boundary to the Reserve, the thugs had parked three pick-up vehicles on the route and ordered them to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Upon stopping, the thugs numbering over 20 who had laid ambush in the nearby vegetation emerged and started firing warning shots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of our officers who was seated at the front of one of our vehicles was hit with a machete several times by the thugs,\u201d An officer with the team said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOne of our vehicles also got damaged from the gun shots. Fortunately, apart from the officer who was hit with the machete, no one got injured,\u201d he narrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team sensing danger retreated for safety. The matter has once again been reported to the Nkawie Divisional Police Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A similar incident about two months ago saw a member of the team slashed in the Knee with machete by illegal miners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Jimira and Jimira extension forest reserves have become no-go areas even for forestry officials protecting the reserves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Forestry Commission Rapid Response team narrowly escaped death today as about 20 fully armed illegal miners still operating within the Jimira Forest Reserve ambushed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14628,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14627"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14629,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14627\/revisions\/14629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sbmediaonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}