Pankrono, Ashanti Region:  For 15 years, Abass Salifu toiled deep beneath the ground in illegal mining sites here around Kumasi. The work paid well. He built two houses and provided comfortably for his wife and two children. In 2025 however, everything changed. He started coughing endlessly. Soon, he was coughing blood. By January 2026, Salifu passed away. “I wish I had never mined,” he told this reporter in December, speaking in Twi. Salifu laboured to breathe, and to control his emotions. Doctors had told him he had days to live. “It’s not worth giving your life. I’m not going to see my children grow up. If I had known this would happen, I would have chosen something else.”