Tappita, Lower-Nimba – Emmanuel Koffee is happy to be alive. The father of four escaped death by the mercy of God but it was his quest for glitter that nearly cost him his life.
Report by Franklin Doloquee, Contributor
Sitting on a bench in the village of Kartee, shortly after he was discharged from the Jackson F. Doe Hospital Monday, the 27-year-old lamented that he was fooled by his friends to mine for gold.
“My friends fooled me. They showed me huge sums of money which convinced me that my living condition will improve if I joined them in the search for gold,” Says Koffee.
Koffee was one of five who were lucky to be rescued when the mines collapsed last week.
Although he is still nursing his wounds, the survivor told our Nimba County Correspondent that the Kartee village gold mine was to some a life saver but no one anticipated that such a tragedy would occur.
Koffee says miners dig the mines both day and night time in search of gold, forced to use light in tight holes and massive heat.
To bide the time, Koffee says, some of the miners take in drugs and alcohol to enable them to carry out their digs.
Like Koffee, Nathan Daywoe, another survivor, says the quest for a better life is a driving force behind their digging for gold but the lessons of the tragedy have given him more reason to rethink.
Although still in shock, he hopes the government can come to the aid of those who made it through the tragedy.
Duwoe says he is alive by the mercy of God. Still in deep pains, he says from his hospital bed at JFD, that those who lost their lives were in the wrong place at the wrong time when the mine collapsed.
“They were on the other side when the muds starting dropping and we were on the other side, that’s why we are alive today.”
Pushing back his tears, Duwoe lamented that after the death of more than 40 of his peers, the illicit miners were still seen trying to dig for gold before authorities dispatched security personnel to the area.
65 ‘Illegal’ Gold Miners Arrested
On Monday, the government intensified efforts to rescue several persons still unaccounted for in the Goldmine collapse.
An Incident Command Post has been set up by the National Disaster Management Agency (NDMA) in the town of Gbanipea to the scene of the disaster which is 45 minutes’ walk away from Gbanipea.
At least sixty-five (65) illegal gold miners have been arrested by officers of the Liberia National Police, authorities said Monday.
A FrontPageAfrica reporter in the area says state security have also been deployed at the gold mine following the death of 44 gold boys at the mining area.
The 65 illicit gold miners, mostly men and a few women were booked by the state security after being informed by the government that no one should be seem at the mining place where the bodies of more
than forty of their friends are still buried.
The NDMA, in a statement Monday confirmed that government security forces comprising the Liberia National Police (LNP), Liberia Immigration Service (LIS), Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency (LDEA) and the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) have taken siege of the illegal goldmines operated by illegal miners where several persons are still unaccounted for in a loose soil collapse.
Residents of the mines have been evacuated to safe havens where they are being catered to until operations “Rescue Alive or Recovered Dead”. The Liberia National red Cross Society (LNRCS) has begun contact tracing so as to establish the exact information of people missing in the loose soil collapse.
The Ministry of health (MOH), National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), WASH Commission, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have begun testing water sources for possible water pollution, assessing livelihoods to ensure the safety of the community and conducting surveillance of a possible outbreak of either air or water borne diseases. The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the National Traditional Council of Liberia have been engaging the chiefs and elders to ensure the operations are smoothly carried out without breaking our cultural norms.
Since government described the area as national disaster zone and ordered the closure of the mining area, many of those involved are still running afoul of the law and continue to be involved in mining activities by using the country devil as a distraction.
The country devil has been at the gold mining area for the past two weeks preventing authorities from deploying security personnel in the area.
At the weekend, Chief Zanzan Kanwor, the head for the tradition council in Liberia, visited the area and prevailed on the country devil to leave the mining area and allow the authorities to do their job.
FrontPage Africa correspondent says although there is huge presence of security personnel in the area, bodies are yet to be removed from the soil which has cause the area to spell.
Prince Jackson, who described himself as the head for the operation to remove bodies from the scene, narrated to FrontPageAfrica that when the accident occurs, he, along with five men rushed to the mine and managed to rescue five miners but one of them passed out.
Our correspondent said most of the deceased came from Bong, Lofa Grand Bassa Counties including the South-east while some came from district number 4,5,6 7,8,9 in Nimba County. Several women who came from Bong county to sell at the gold mine were seem sleeping outside, lacking food and unable to find their back home due to lack of money.
Some of the women who were arrested narrated that they have gone to sell their cold water which cause 20.00 LD per beg when they were arrested. Anita Peter, Oretha Johnson and Esther Dahn told our
correspondent that they have no idea of gold mining but rather they were simply trying to make a living by selling water to miners.
Meanwhile, the complication of the mines is impeding speedy rescue efforts which now has brought the Technical Steering Committee set up by the President to provide supervision of the operations to its “Second Course of Actions” in the “Emergency Response Plan”, that is, by “moving in earth-moving equipment that will open a road from the main highway to the mining site which is an inaccessible site. The purpose for this is to allow an excavator machine to move into the mines so as to speed up the rescue work”.
President Weah has declared Monday a “National Day of Mourning” in memory of those who lost their lives in the loose soil collapse.
Front-Page-Africa has gathered that the government of Liberia has provided some funding to address the tragedy but the national disaster management many of the victims are complaining that they are not being treated well and lacking drugs to ease their pains.
Survivors Lament Lack of Food, Water
Augustus Kollie, head of the group in charge of the rescue operation told reports at the police station that government has done what it could and cautioned the miners not to go back to the area where the tragedy took place.
Our correspondent says business men and women who came from Bong, Rivercess and the south-east including Nimba are still finding it difficult to get back to their respective homes.
Josephine Kollie, a resident of Gbarnga, Bong County said she and some of her peers came to sell food for their children to be in school; now she says, they have no means of getting back home – as she broke down in tears.
In the village of Kartee, a bag of water sells for 20.00 LD but many who are stuck there can barely find food.
Our correspondent says most of the emergency workers dispatched to the area, including the Liberia national Red Cross, the National Disaster Management and the Traditional Council among others have left the area while the status of some 40 miners remain unknown in the wreckage of the mud.