General News of Saturday, 22 September 2001

Source: Joy Online

Ghanaian Casualties In US Attacks Not Known

Eleven days after the devastating attacks on America’s key symbols of the military and economic might, Ghana’s Foreign Ministry has very little information on Ghanaian casualties. The Ministry had earlier announced that four Ghanaians have been confirmed dead.

JOYFM enquiries at the Foreign Ministry revealed that the Ghana Mission in Washington has not given the Ministry updated information on the number of Ghanaians dead or injured. This is because, perhaps, the Embassy itself has very scanty information.

However, many Ghanaians resident in the United States are reportedly searching for their relations and friends who went missing after the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. A guest presenter on JOYFM’s Christian programmes, Rev Samuel Kissiedu, based in the New York, says there is a lot of anxiety among the Ghanaian community in the United States.

According to him, Ghanaians who went to Ghana’s Mission in the United States to seek information on their missing relatives were told that the mission had no information on the names and number of Ghanaians who were killed in the attacks.

Most Ghanaians who work at restaurants in the World Trade Centre are feared dead. Senior officials at the Foreign Ministry have refused to comment with the Minister and his deputy out of the country.