A Ghanaian professor at Southern Illinois University (SIU) in the United States has been shot dead, with his wife arrested in connection with the killing.
Dr Kofi Akamani, 48, was fatally shot on Saturday, September 19, 2026, near Lake Road between Murphysboro and Carbondale in Illinois.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office (JCSO) said deputies responded to reports of a shooting at about 5 p.m.
Dr Akamani was taken to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, where he was pronounced dead from injuries sustained in the shooting.
Following an investigation, the JCSO said his wife, 35-year-old Betty Akamani, had been arrested and was facing multiple charges in connection with the incident.
The sheriff’s office has not disclosed further details about the circumstances surrounding the shooting, saying the investigation remains in its early stages.
The Jackson County Ambulance Service, Jackson County Coroner’s Office and Jackson County State’s Attorney’s Office assisted with the investigation.
Dr Akamani was a professor in SIU Carbondale’s Department of Forestry, where he taught forest recreation and conservation social science.
He began his tertiary education in Ghana at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Development Planning, specialising in Urban Planning.
He later earned a Master of Philosophy degree from the University of Oslo in Norway in 2006 before obtaining a PhD in Natural Resources from the University of Idaho in the United States.
During his doctoral studies, Dr Akamani returned to Ghana for six months to research collaborative forest management and its impact on the social-ecological resilience of two forest-dependent communities in the Ashanti Region.
The JCSO said no further information would be released at this stage as investigations continue.
