Members of the land-owning families in the Magbafth Section, Yoni Mabanta Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone, have expressed dissatisfaction over what they called an infringement of their human rights by a company intending to do mining on their lands.

The OSARA Mining company, according to the landowners, is going on with an agreement with local authorities without the consent of families that own the said lands.

According to the landowners, the company is proposing a Bauxite Mining covering ten villages in the Magbafth Section, but they have felt belittled by the local authorities whom they say are going on with the agreement for the said mining on their own lands without involving them.

All of the landowners remain anonymous for fear of security reasons.

Related News

The landowners said they learned about the proposed Bauxite mining on their lands during a meeting held on 30 November 2024, where only village headmen from the ten villages in the Magbafth Section were invited by the Chiefdom Council.

The land owners said the Chiefdom Council of Yoni Mabanta Chiefdom only invited the village headmen, who are subject to the directives of the very Council headed by the Paramount Chief, leaving behind the families that own the lands.

During the meeting, land owners accused the Chiefdom Speaker, who is also a member of the Chiefdom Council and one Alhassan Fullah, the younger brother of the Paramount Chief of Yoni Mabanta Chiefdom of making statements they deemed a threat.

“In the meeting, Alhassan Fullah, the younger brother of the Paramount Chief, insisted the consent of Landowners is not necessary, according to a land owner.

Residents said the Chiefdom speaker, Daniel Turay, and the Paramount Chief’s younger brother, threatened to use the security forces to manhandle landowners who may oppose the company’s operations.

While the company is reportedly seeking legal authority from the government to start its operations, the community members, especially members of the land-owning families, described the move as an infringement on their human rights

“Such action is a coup aiming at undersigning the livelihoods security of rural citizens, especially women, hence destroying ecologically sensitive areas and ecosystem biodiversity, which community members have protected for decades. Such natural resources are of immense importance to their lives as community members,” a Magbafth Section indigene living in Freetown said.

Community members are expressing serious concerns about the approach the company is using, as they described the process as rogue, and an infringement of landowners’ rights, hence contravening key legal provisions in the Mines and Minerals Development Act, the Customary Land Rights Act, and the National Land Commission Act and by extension the laws of Sierra Leone.

Community members from the ten villages are calling on relevant government institutions, especially the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Mineral Agency (NMA), Ministry of Agriculture, and other institutions, not to issue licenses to the OSARA Mining Company Ltd until the right thing is done.

The affected Landowners in the ten villages in Magbafth Section whose rights have been infringed are calling on the government, civil rights organizations and media institutions to speak out to ensure the operations of the aforementioned company are checked because they consider its proposed operations a mining coup that will put their lives in a precarious situation.

Fullah, the younger brother of PC Fullamasa Gbabereh, was contacted to comment on the story, but he did not. He was called several times but refused to pick up. WhatsApp messages were also sent to his available WhatsApp phone number and haven’t responded after days.

Efforts were also made to reach the speaker of Yoni Mabanta Chiefdom, but it proved futile.