Illegal small-scale miners (Galamseyers) are hungry people who need jobs to keep body and soul together, therefore the government must provide them with alternative livelihoods to enable them to stop their nefarious practices, a former Chief of Defence Staff, Brigadier Joseph Nunoo-Mensah has said.

He said that using the military to fight people engaged in illegal small-scale mining (Galamsey) is not the solution.

He described galamsey as a socio-economic issue that has to be approached from an economic point of view by finding them alternative jobs. "I see the problem as a socio-economic problem.

I don't believe in even using the military to harass galamsey don't use soldiers to bull down people who are hungry." he said while speaking during the thought leadership forum on the theme "Galamsey Fight: Beyond the talk, what next?" organized by Media General in Accra on Wednesday, September 25.