Senior Officers removed as Ghana Armed Forces probes deadly recruitment stampede

The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has directed senior officers who supervised the ill-fated recruitment exercise at the El-Wak Sports Stadium to step aside pending the outcome of investigations into the tragic stampede that claimed six lives and left several others injured.

According to military sources cited by JoyNews, new commanders have been appointed to take charge of the recruitment process once it resumes, in a move aimed at ensuring transparency and safeguarding the integrity of the ongoing probe.

The tragedy occurred on November 12, 2025, during a screening exercise at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra, where thousands of eager applicants converged, many arriving long before dawn. A surge at one of the main gates led to chaos, resulting in the deaths of six young women and injuries to dozens of others, who were rushed to nearby hospitals for emergency care.

In the aftermath, the Ghana Armed Forces suspended all recruitment activities in the Greater Accra Region and immediately constituted a Board of Inquiry to investigate the causes of the incident.

President John Dramani Mahama has since extended the suspension nationwide, instructing the Board to conduct a comprehensive review of crowd management measures, officer conduct, and overall safety protocols during recruitment exercises.

A similar stampede was reported at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi, where nearly twenty people sustained injuries, though no fatalities were recorded.

Security analysts and civil society organisations have urged the Armed Forces to decentralise future recruitment centres, enforce stricter batch scheduling, and introduce enhanced crowd-control mechanisms to avoid a recurrence.

Meanwhile, families of the deceased have called for accountability and meaningful reforms within the military recruitment system to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again.