At least thirteen deaths amid flooding in Accra, Ghana.

At least thirteen people have died and a further seven are missing following flooding in the Ghanaian capitol, Accra, following a heavy rainstorm overnight between Sunday 28 and Monday 29 June 2026, with over 38 800 people from more than 7750 households displaced by floodwaters. The worst affected areas of the city is Ga East, where five people are known to have died, and another 2000 people have been displaced from their homes, and Ayawaso Central three people have died and one is missing, while about 3020 people have been displaced. Another three people have died in Tema West, where about 3450 have been displaced. In Ledzokuku one person has died and around 1200 have been displaced by the flooding. 

In Ga Central over 1800 people have been displaced, but there are no reports of any fatalities of missing persons, while in Ga West about 2300 people have been displaced, again with no reports of fatalities or missing persons. About 1850 people have been displaced from their homes in Adentan, while about 6500 have been displaced from  Korle Klottey. About 2620 people have been displaced by flooding in Okaikwei North, while in Okaikwei South the figure is about 3450 people. In Tema Metropolis about 3600 people were displaced, but no casualties have been reported. About 2200 people have been displaced by flooding in La Dadekotopon, and about 1100 in Krowor.

Officials from the Ghanaian National Disaster Management Organisation and soldiers from the 48 Engineer Regiment of the Ghana Armed Forces rescue people trapped by floodwaters in Accra, Ghana. National Disaster Management Organisation.

Outside of Accra, twenty houses are reported to have collapsed due to flooding in the Cape Coast Metropolis, with five people killed inside one of these buildings when it collapsed, and a sixth person drowning in a separate incident. Two people were killed in another building collapse in Mfantsiman, with another person drowning separately, and in Gomoa Central one person was killed in a building collapse and another drowned. Altogether, 58 houses are reported to have been destroyed in Central Region, with flooding also reported in the Volta and Western North regions.

June falls in the middle of the rainy season in Accra, with the city receiving an average of 175 mm of rain during the month. West Africa has a distinct two season climatic cycle, with a cool dry season during the northern winter when prevalent winds blow from the Sahara to the northeast, and a warm rainy season during the northern summer when prevalent winds blow from the Atlantic Ocean to the southwest. These warm winds from the Atlantic are laden with moisture, which can be lost rapidly when the air encounters cooler conditions.

Rainfall and prevalent winds during the West African dry and rainy seasons. Encyclopedia Britanica.

However, this year's rains have been far heavier than usual, with 169.2 mm of rain falling in 24 hours on Sunday 28 March, the fourth highest level of rainfall in a single day ever recorded in Ghana, and 593.2 mm of rain falling in June, the wettest month ever recorded in the city. The previous record-holding year was 2002, when 420.6 mm of rain fell in Accra during June, a figure which this year has exceeded by more than the average rainfall for the month. These rising rain levels are linked to greater sea surface temperatures over the Atlantic Ocean as the global climate warms, which leads to greater levels of evaporation from the sea, followed by increased precipitation on land.

Nevertheless, the high rainfall levels are not thought to be the main cause of the flooding which Accra has been suffering this week. Instead, local authorities are blaming the city's lax building controls, which have led to buildings and settlements spreading over and covering up drainage systems, as well as covering areas that were formally open soil with concrete, preventing water from soaking away. This has led to orders fir several illegally built properties to be demolished in the wake of the floods, though local community groups are asking for more consultation before any such plans are implemented, as in the past authorities have demolished properties without any plan to resettle their occupants, resulting in the rebuilding of properties once the authorities have left.

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Ghanaian government bans mining in forest reserves.

The Ghanaian Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology has re-imposed a ban on small-scale mining in forest reserves in order to halt deforestation and protect natural water bodies. Ghana is Africa's largest producer of gold, but, as in many other countries, much of the gold is extracted by large companies, who contribute to the national revenue but employ a relatively low number of workers, leading to the impression amongst much of the population that they are not benefiting from the industry. Since a large section of the Ghanaian population lacks formal employment, being dependent on subsistence farming, fishing, or 'hustling' (participation in the informal economy), this can be a matter of contention, and has led to frequent raids on mining concessions by informal, artisanal miners.

Damage caused by an illegal mining camp in the Neung Forest Reserve in Ghana's Western Region. Festus Randy Jackson-Davis/Pan African Visions.

In an effort to combat this, in 2022 the Ghanaian Government introduced the Environmental Protection (Mining in Forest Reserves) Regulations, which allowed small scale mining in forest reserves, under a permit system. However, three years on, widespread, and unregulated, artisanal mining is reported to have led to environmental damage in 13 of the 16 regions of Ghana, in places threatening waterways vital for the country's Cocoa crops, while mining companies still report incursions onto their property. This in turn has led to a campaign by environmental groups in the country to reimpose the banning of mining in these areas.

The Ghanaian authorities plan to unveil a new, more tightly controlled system of permits for small-scale mines in the country, in line with the system of timber licensing it introduced earlier this year. It remains to be seen, however, how well the government will be able to enforce these new regulations, and to what extent they will be accepted by sections of the population with few other options for income generation.

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Rypticus africanus: A new species of Soapfish from the eastern Atlantic.

Soapfish, Grammistes and Rypticus spp., are bottom-dwelling Perciform Fish related to Groupers, generally found on reefs and other rocky marine environments. They get their common name from their ability to secrete a toxic, soapy, mucus as a defence mechanism. The genus Grammistes is restricted to the Indo-Pacific region, while members of the genus Rypticus are found in the Western Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean. Only two species of Rypticus have been found on the African coast, the Greater Soapfish, Rypticus saponaceus, and the Spotted Soapfish, Rypticus subbifrenatus. The Greater Soapfish is known from both sides of the Atlantic being found from the coast of Florida, throughout the Caribbean, and as far south as Brazil in the western Atlantic, and from Mauritania south as far as Angola in the eastern Atlantic. However, a genetic study of museum specimens published in 2003 suggested that the eastern and western populations of the Greater Soapfish might in fact be separate species.

In a paper published in the Journal of Fish Biology on 21 July 2025, Gabriel Soares Araujo of the Center for Marine Biology at the University of São Paulo, Cláudio Sampaio of the Laboratório de Ictiologia e Conservação at the Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Luiz Rocha of the  Department of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences, and Carlos Eduardo Ferreira Leite of the Departamento de Biologia Marinha at the Universidade Federal Fluminense, re-examine the genetics of the Greater Soapfish, and formally describe the populations from the African coast as a separate species.

Araujo et al. examined specimens from Cape Verde, Ghana, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Togo. All were found to be genetically distinct from western Atlantic specimens of Rypticus saponaceus, forming a distinct population which is estimated to have split from the west Atlantic population in the Early Pleistocene, about 2.5 million years ago, at the onset of the Pleistocene, and surprisingly being more closely related to the Pacific Rypticus bicolor. Since Rypticus saponaceus was originally described from specimens from Florida, the east Atlantic population is described as a new species, which Araujo et al. name Rypticus africanus.

Time-calibrated phylogeny of the genus Rypticus based on mitochondrial COI gene sequences. Values near the nodes represent estimated divergence times (Mya). The 95% highest posterior density intervals are shown in parentheses. Coloured circles represent the biogeographic regions where species of Rypticus are distributed. Vertical bars depict the results of lineage delimitation tests. Araujo et al. (2025).

Specimens of Rypticus africanus examined range from 112 to 215 mm in length, and have three dorsal fin spines, 22-24 dorsal fin rays, 15-17 anal fin rays, 16-18 pectoral fin rays, and 24-25 caudal (tail) fin rays. The head is distinctly pointed, the dorsal fin originates slightly posterior to upper end the of gill opening, and the tail is rounded. They are brown or dark grey in colour, with numerous pale round spots of variable size on their flanks.

(a)–(c) Rypticus africanus from São Tomé and Príncipe, illustrating the variation in colour pattern between individuals: (a) São Tomé Island, (b), (c) Príncipe Island and (d) Rypticus saponaceus from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, shown for comparison. Araujo et al. (2025).

Although Rypticus africanus has only been sampled from four areas (Cape Verde, Ghana, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Togo), Araujo et al. believe the name should be applied to all African populations currently described as Rypticus saponaceus, from Mauritania to Angola.

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Flooding forces thousands to flee their homes in southeastern Ghana.

As many as 26 000 people have been forced to flee their homes in southeastern Ghana, following a flood caused by an emergency release of water from the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River. The water was released after the water level in the dam reached 84.5 m following months od unusually high rainfall this summer. The maximum safe water level in the dam is 84.6 m, above which there is considered to be a risk of the dam failing catastrophically. 

Residents of the Volta Basin in southern Ghana flee their homes following an emergency release of water from the Akosombo Dam on Friday 13 October 2023. Ariana Cubillos/AP.

The Akosombo Dam was built in the 1960s as a hydroelectric dam, intended to generate power for the aluminium industry. The dam crosses the Volta River at Akosombo Gorge, creating behind it Lake Kariba, the largest man-made lake on Earth, covering 3.6% of Ghana's land area. Today the dam provides much of the electricity used in Ghana, as well as neighbouring Togo and Benin. 

Water being released from the Akosombo Dam. Ghanaian Times.

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Archaeologists uncover oldest English fort in Africa.

A team of archaeologists led by Christopher DeCorse of the Department of Anthropology at Syracuse University have uncovered what they believe to be the site of Fort Kormatine, the first English fort established on the coast of Africa. The remains were uncovered during excavations at a later Dutch settlement, Fort Amsterdam, close to town of Kormantse on the coast of Ghana, about 120 km to the west of Accra. The fort was built in 1631, during the reign of Charles I, and fell to the Dutch in 1665. The exact location of the fort was subsequently forgotten, with Fort Amsterdam eventually being traded back to the British in 1868 (during the intervening time, the England and Scotland had officially become unified as one nation).

Fort Amsterdam on the coast of Ghana, the site of the excavations which have uncovered the site of the older Fort Kormantine. BBC.

The first indications that an older site lay beneath Fort Amsterdam (now part of the UNESCO Forts and Castles, Volta, Greater Accra, Central and Western Regions World Heritage Site) came during an exploratory dig in 2019, which uncovered several seventeenth century European artefacts. The archaeologists returned to the site early in 2023, when excavations restarted. During these excavations, Omokolade Omigbule, a Nigerian graduate student at the University of Virginia uncovered the first stone of what has subsequently turned out to be a six metre long section of wall. 

Nigerian graduate student Omokolade Omigbule with a with a section of wall believed to have formed part of the seventeenth century English Fort Kormantine. BBC.

Subsequent excavations at the site have revealed part of the foundations of a building, as well as a doorpost, and a red brick-lined drainage system, as well as an early seventeenth century gunflint, a selection of clay pipe bowls and pottery items, and the jaw of a Goat (taken as evidence that locally sourced domestic Animals were being kept within the fort).

Excavations at Fort Kormantine, within the walls of the more recent Fort Amsterdam. BBC.

The English occupation of the area spans an important shift in European activities in West Africa. When the fort was built in the 1630s the builders were probably primarily interested in trading for gold and other precious materials, but by the time the English occupation ended, the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa had been granted a charter by King Charles II, giving it the exclusive right to trade slaves from Africa with English colonies in the new world, with the term 'Coromantee' being used by both the English and the Dutch to describe slaves from the coast of the area we call Ghana today.

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