The morning of August 6, 2025, broke with no warning of the grief it would carry. Ghana’s skies, often a canvas of promise, became the stage for a tragedy that would grip the nation’s soul.
A military Carbin Z-9 helicopter, carrying some of the country’s most dedicated leaders and brave servicemen, went down in the Ashanti highlands.
In a single, devastating moment, eight lives of service, courage and vision were gone.
This is not just the story of a crash. It is the story of people, leaders, husbands, fathers, brothers, patriots whose lives became part of Ghana’s heartbeat.
And whose absence has left an ache in the nation’s chest.
Leaders who carried Ghana
Dr Edward Kofi Omane Boamah, Ghana’s Minister for Defence, was a physician by training but a strategist by calling.
May the souls of the departed rest in peace
To him, safeguarding Ghana’s people was not just a duty; it was a covenant.
In his short tenure at the Defence Ministry, he sought to strengthen national security with quiet determination and deep integrity.
Beside him in the nation’s service stood Dr Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, Minister for Environment, Science and Technology. Visionary, relentless and deeply connected to his roots, Murtala’s fight against environmental degradation and illegal mining was more than policy - it was personal.
He carried the hope of a cleaner, safer Ghana for the next generation. Their deaths tore through the leadership fabric of the country, leaving a gap that will not easily be stitched.
Bridge builders
Among the fallen was Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, Acting Deputy National Security Coordinator, a man known for building alliances where others saw only divisions.
Alongside him, Dr Samuel Sarpong, Vice-Chairman of the NDC and Samuel Aboagye, a parliamentary candidate and community servant, brought both political vision and a human touch to the communities they served.
They were leaders beyond titles, men who could sit at the high table of politics yet walk humbly among market traders and farmers.
The sky guardians
The crew, Squadron Leader Peter Baafemi Anala, Flying Officer Manaen Twum-Ampadu and Sergeant Ernest Addo Mensah, were the silent sentinels of Ghana’s air.
They knew the risks that come with flight in service of the flag. Yet, they took the mission, trusting their training, their machine and their God. On that day, their courage did not falter, even as fate dealt its final card.
A nation’s cry
From the presidential palace to the fishing villages, the news swept like a storm.
Ghana’s tricolour flag dipped in mourning. Markets grew quiet.
Radios played solemn hymns. People gathered in churches, mosques and public squares not just to grieve, but to hold one another in shared loss.
Tributes poured in. Political rivals became brothers in grief. Students remembered how Dr Omane Boamah once stood among them as a youth leader.
Farmers recalled Murtala’s visits to rural communities.
The Armed Forces honoured their fallen airmen with the salute reserved for the bravest.
Beyond the headlines
It is easy, in moments like this, to see only the tragedy. But these men’s lives were more than the way they ended.
They were lives defined by service.
They were fathers whose children would grow up with stories of their courage.
They were leaders whose decisions shaped the lives of millions.
They stood at different gates of Ghana’s governance, defence, environment, security, political leadership and military service, but they all shared a single oath: “For God and Country.”
The charge they leave behind
In their passing, the fallen leave us an inheritance that is not made of money or buildings, but of values:
• Integrity in leadership, even when the cost is high.
• Courage to face the storms, whether in the air or Parliament.
• Vision for a Ghana that can rise above greed, division and decay.
• Unity, because on the day they died, Ghana wept as one.
Final salute
Eight coffins, draped in Ghana’s flag, now rest in honoured silence.
Their journey in this life has ended, but their work continues through us.
Every time a soldier stands guard, a leader chooses the harder right over the easier wrong, or a citizen serves without expecting reward, they live again.
May the winds carry their memory to the corners of this land.
May their sacrifice water the seeds of a greater Ghana.
And may we, the living, rise to match their devotion.
Rest well, noble sons of Ghana.
Your watch is over.
