A reported incident of shooting has on the 7th of May 2024 led to the gruesome death of a fifteen years old class six pupil in Mananie village, Yoni Mamaila Chiefdom, Tonkolili District, Northern Sierra Leone.

15-year-old Alhaji Kamara was allegedly shot by Abdul Conteh alias Tigo who is currently wanted by the Sierra Leone Police. According to Hassan Kanu, the Mananie Town Youth Leader, the boy and several other people from the village were in the farm working when a group of men from Mabureh, a neighboring village stormed the farm with weapons and shot the boy.

Among those identified by the villagers and seen with weapons, the Youth Leader said, are Abdul Conteh alias Tigo who allegedly killed the boy, James Koroma and Abdul Turay all of Mabureh village.

 

“When they reached at the farm, they threatened to killed whosoever that refused to leave the disputed. The 15 years old boy was attempting to run when he was shot twice by Tigo,” the Youth Leader said.

The class six pupil later died in a hospital at Mile 91.

The alleged incident also left over twenty-eight houses in Mabureh village in rubble after they were burnt down immediately after news of the shooting of the boy went viral. All of the residents in that village have fled to neighboring villages and chiefdoms. When this reporter visited the village, none of the residents were found in the village.

Though Mananie, the hometown of the slain 15 years old boy and Mabureh, where the houses were burnt down are two neighboring villages but a land fracas has recently strained the relationship that has existed between the two communities for decades. The two communities are claiming ownership of a farm land called Mamorka. The disputed land is lying in between the two villages. They have been to the Barry of the Paramount Chief, a Local Court in the Chiefdom and State Counsel’s Office in Makeni, according to investigation.

In 1977, one Alhaji John Fornah, a Court Chairman in the Chiefdom ruled in favor of the Mananie village, according to the Youth Leader.

It was revealed that stakeholders from the two communities were supposed to meet in Makeni on the day of the alleged incident when the men from Mabureh allegedly attacked a section of Mananie residents who were working in the disputed land.

The Mananie Town Youth Leader said they alerted the Mile 91 Police Station immediately the incident occured. Chief Superintendent of Police Michael JK Lagga, the Mile 91 Division Local Unit Commander has confirmed the matter is to their knowledge. CSP Lagga says they are investigating and will bring to book those behind the killing and the burning of houses.

Currently, all of those alleged or named in the allegation are on the run. Some arrests were made, but none of the key suspects in respect of the matter have been brought to book.

Mabinty Tarawalie, mother of the boy killed said he is calling for justice. Her boy, she said has nothing to do with a land fracas and his killing, she added must be investigated.