Ghana's Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah died in a military helicopter crash on Wednesday along with four other officials and three airforce crew, the government said.

The helicopter had taken off from Accra, the capital, en route to a mining conference when it went “off the radar,” the armed forces said.

Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama has asked Finance Minister Cassiel Ato Forson to also act as defence minister after a military helicopter crash in which the defence minister was among those killed,