The family of 25-year-old Sandra Baafi Boateng has renewed its appeal for public assistance, one year after she sustained serious injuries in a stampede during a military recruitment exercise at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi. Her brother, Prince Agyenim Boateng, has launched a GoFundMe campaign seeking to raise £20,000 to support her ongoing medical care and rehabilitation.
According to Prince, Sandra had completed her nursing training and was awaiting posting when she attended the recruitment exercise, hoping to serve the country as a military nurse. However, a year after the incident, she remains bedridden, with limited consciousness, and unable to walk or speak.
She has since been discharged from hospital and is receiving care at home, leaving her family responsible for her daily needs and the associated expenses. As of Friday morning, the fundraiser had attracted 18 donations totalling £519. Meanwhile, the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has dismissed claims that it abandoned Sandra, outlining the assistance it says it has provided since the stampede on November 12, 2025.
The military estimates that her treatment at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) cost approximately GH¢85,000, while her eight-month stay at the 37 Military Hospital in Accra amounted to GH¢28,800. She was airlifted to the facility in February for specialised treatment.
At a ceremony held at the GAF General Headquarters in Accra on October 28, the day Sandra was discharged, her mother received GH¢30,000 in cash and an air bed to support her daughter’s care. The Armed Forces also disclosed that Sandra’s sister, Mercy Bioh, is currently undergoing training at the Army Recruit Training School at Shai Hills under an arrangement that provides enlistment opportunities to relatives of victims. It added that Sandra’s medical care would continue at the 4th Military Hospital in Kumasi.
On her transportation back to Kumasi, the military said it had offered a military ambulance, but Sandra’s mother requested air transportation instead. However, when an airlift could not be arranged, the family travelled with assistance from the National Ambulance Service.
Sandra initially received treatment at KATH until February 26, 2026, when the military airlifted her to the 37 Military Hospital in Accra. In March, Health Minister Kwabena Mintah Akandoh informed Parliament that the government was bearing her medical expenses and remained willing to facilitate treatment abroad if doctors deemed it necessary.
The Kumasi incident occurred on the same day as a separate and deadlier stampede at the El-Wak Stadium in Accra, where six young women lost their lives during the same military recruitment exercise. In response, the government announced GH¢150,000 in compensation for each bereaved family. By March, five of the six families had accepted offers of replacement enlistment slots in the Army.
Commemorating the anniversary on X, former NPP parliamentary candidate for Adentan, Akosua Manu, questioned whether the government had fulfilled its commitments to the families of those who died and the survivors of the stampedes.
She also called on the military to make public the findings of its Board of Inquiry, a year after the tragedy. Although she expressed reservations about the officially reported death toll, she said she would continue to rely on the government’s figure of six fatalities.
While Sandra’s family continues to seek financial assistance through its ongoing fundraiser, the Ghana Armed Forces maintains that its responsibility towards her medical care has not ended following her discharge from hospital.
