A special team of the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Sierra Leone in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Police (SLP) has destroyed about eighty (80) dredges engaged in illegal mining during special operations at various illegal mining sites around the country.

The special operations were based on the June 2021 Presidential Directive and Order to curb all illegal dredge mining activities on the waterways.

The main objective of the special operations is to destroy all dredges and if possible arrest any foreign national the Agency could lay hands on.

The special operations started at Boajibu, Simbaru Chiefdom, Kenema District, in the Sewa River and slightly stretched to Sumbuya in the Bo District, where a significant number of dredges were destroyed.

From the Sewa, Taia and Jong Rivers in the Southern Region, the special team headed to the Northwest Region in the tributaries of the Pampana River where the team successfully destroyed twenty (20) dredges in one location where dredge mining was intensified.

Immediately the dredge miners saw the special team, they activated their dredges and started running away from the team. But with the help of jetskies, they were overpowered within all the locations they landed and hid their dredges.

While the special team still has more locations to visit and crack down on all illegal dredge mining activities, as at Thursday 17th August 2023, the team successfully destroyed 80 dredges in the Eastern, Southern and Northern Provinces.

In most of the dredge mining sites, after the miners had fled, the team discovered traces of items belonging to foreign nationals, including Tonkolili District where the team discovered abandoned Ghanaian passports as well as Sierra Leone Immigration Clearances to stay in the country and Sierra Leone labour cards.

One of the major challenges during the special operations is the connivance of community people and landowning families with foreign nationals who have introduced this type of illegal mining in this country.

The moment they spot the special team in the illegal mining communities, some would ride their motorbikes to the mining sites and inform them of the arrival of the team, while some would use their cell phones to communicate with the illegal miners and most of them are foreign nationals, especially Ghanaians.

Credit:By Ishmael Kindama Dumbuya