Ghana held the final day of national mourning on Saturday (August 9) for Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed, who died in a military helicopter crash earlier this week along with six others.

At a ceremony in the presidential palace in Accra, President John Mahama, Vice President Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang, Sierra Leone’s President and ECOWAS chairman Julius Maada Bio, and other dignitaries joined grieving relatives, police officers and soldiers to honour the victims.

The ministers were aboard a Z-9 air force helicopter that went down in Ghana’s southern Ashanti region on Wednesday (August 6) after radar contact was lost, the military said. Authorities have not yet determined the cause of the crash.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

ACCRA, GHANA (AUGUST 9, 2025) (REUTERS - Access All)

1. VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE AT VENUE ATTENDING FINAL DAY OF NATIONAL MOURNING FOR DEFENCE MINISTER EDWARD OMANE BOAMAH AND ENVIRONMENT MINISTER IBRAHIM MURTALA MUHAMMED, WHO WERE KILLED IN MILITARY HELICOPTER CRASH WITH SIX OTHERS

2. WOMAN SPEAKING AT PODIUM

3. (L-R) GHANA VICE PRESIDENT, SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENT (CURRENT ECOWAS CHAIRMAN), GHANA PRESIDENT JOHN MAHAMA AND GHANA FIRST LADY LORDINA MAHAMA

4. GHANA PRESIDENT MAHAMA AND SIERRA LEONE PRESIDENT

5. SCREEN SHOWING PORTRAITS OF CRASH VICTIMS

6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GHANA PRESIDENT, JOHN MAHAMA, SAYING:

"What compounds our collective grief and shock as a nation with the sudden, unpredictable, and violent nature of their passing? Culturally, we've become used to preparing for the loss of loved ones, even in grief illnesses. Yet in this increasingly complex and fast-moving world, we are sometimes faced with such sudden bereavement, forcing us to confront how fragile and how fleeting life really is. Here today, gone tomorrow."

7. VICTIMS' FAMILY MEMBERS ON STAGE

8. VARIOUS OF WOMAN CRYING DURING SPEECH

9. PORTRAITS OF VICTIMS

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) GHANA VICE PRESIDENT, JANE NAANA OPOKU-AGYEMANG, SAYING:

"Why is this happening? Why did this happen? Why now? Why them? What should we do? What should we know? What are the lessons? How should we learn the lessons? How should we apply them? This is definitely not a time for distasteful bloating over the misfortune, for postulation. This is not a time for apportioning blame. It is a time for sober reflection, of paying attention to detail and to facts."

11. POLICE OFFICIALS SEATED

12. FAMILY MEMBERS AT CEREMONY

13. VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS ATTENDING CEREMONY

14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER, SAMUEL NARTEY GEORGE, SAYING:

"His children and world, they were everything to him. This ethos he imbibed into me in every single conversation we had. Sam, how are Vera and the kids? Sam, spend more time with the children. Sam, there's no better home teacher for the kids than you and Vera. Who would you call, or who would call me now, to ask me of my kids' academic performance? Ah, Kofi."

15. PRESIDENT MAHAMA AND FIRST LADY OF GHANA

16. CHOIR SINGING DURING COMMEMORATION