In a devastating incident on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, Ghana’s Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were killed in a helicopter crash, the Ghanaian presidency confirmed.
The tragedy unfolded just hours after the armed forces reported that a helicopter carrying three crew members and five passengers lost contact and disappeared from the radar.
Edward Omane Boamah had been appointed Defence Minister earlier this year by President John Mahama, shortly after his inauguration in January. Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed was serving as Minister of Environment, Science, and Technology at the time.
Authorities have confirmed that all eight individuals onboard the helicopter perished in the crash. The nation mourns the loss of two key leaders in this tragic accident.
“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.
Boamah was helming Ghana’s defence ministry at a time when jihadist activity across its northern border in Burkina Faso has become increasingly restive.
While Ghana has so far avoided a jihadist spillover from the Sahel - unlike neighbours Togo and Benin - observers have warned of increased arms trafficking and of militants from Burkina Faso crossing the porous border to use Ghana as a rear base.
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, reports stated.
As Ghana has pursued increased diplomacy with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger - all ruled by juntas who have broken with the ECOWAS West African regional bloc - 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.
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