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slash podcasts. A funeral in Ghana's gold-rich Ashanti region. You're listening to assignment on the BBC World Service where hundreds have gathered to pay their respects to a local man, John Uwsu.

He was killed trying to confront a gang of illegal miners who'd invaded his company's land.

His old friend Richard Alima is among them.

It was a very nice man, a very affordable man.

He always had a smile.

That was the kind of man John was.

To think that he would die in the course of making things right.

Well, it's very heartbreaking.

John Owusu's death has created headlines in Ghana.

It's also stirred fears.

I'm Ed Butler and in today's program

I'm going to be looking at the events that led to his death

at his hometown of Boisie, which lies at the center of Ghana's

gold region and at the sense of growing crisis here. With illegal gangs

attacking ever more of the country's gold mines, some wonder could the security and

the economy of the country now be at risk. A Boisci's market looks busy enough, but there are problems brewing in this town.

The multinational company, Anglo-Gold Ashanti, or A. G. A. A. A.

runs the one industrial gold mine here. Two years ago, it was forced to suspend operations.

The mine was making a loss it said. It needed an upgrade.

To do this, thousands of local workers had to be laid off.

Since then, perhaps predictably, the town's economy has nose-dived.

...