Reports reaching this medium have confirmed the deaths of a 10 year old girl and a 44 year old man by drowning at the Kabba River when some staff of the National Protected Area Authority (NPAA) went on an operation along the Kabba River close to Kamakwie. This has angered and saddened the people for which they want justice.

We understand that government authorities namely the police, Office of National Security, District Council members and Members of Parliament from Karene District have visited the scene and investigations are ongoing.

The people were assured that the matter will be thoroughly investigated and the culprits brought to book according to law.

According to some of the villagers we interviewed, existing arrangements between the NPAA management staff assigned to the area and the gold miners went sour.This resulted to the NPAA Park Manager for the Otamba Kilima National Park (OKNP), Miss Magdalene Koroma and the Law Enforcement Manager, Mr. Dauda Lenge Bangura and two other officers namely, Boston and Ramadan Bah in the company of armed military and police officers going on the rampage that forced the terrified villagers to flee in all directions and in the process the two innocent civilians lost their lives by drowning.

The people want to know who authorized this operation that caused the deaths of the two innocent and defenseless civilians.

A chiefdom elder informed this medium, “this tragic incident is as a result of panic when the two dead people saw the security forces advancing. The six year-old girl was in their farmhouse with other children close to the illegal mining site and on seeing the security forces, they all, including the 44-year old man, ran towards the river, the only escape route. Unfortunately, the two drowned. However, they were unable to do the autopsy due to the request from family members for them to be buried because of tradition and especially when the corpses had started decomposing.”

This medium also gathered that his happened in Sella Chiefdom and not Tambaka that is well outside the boundaries of the OKNP some ten miles away from OKNP.

Sella Chiefdom communities, especially the families of the deceased, are kindly pleading with the government to properly investigate the matter to ensure that justice is done.

The people are placing their hope and faith on their elected officials in Parliament and the council to ensure that those who caused this crime face punishment through the country’s justice system.