By Joseph S. Margai in Freetown, Sierra Leone
Volunteers at the cemetery where victims of the deadly Ebola and the Mudslide in Freetown in Pa Loko village, outskirts of Waterloo, in the Western Area Rural District, have expressed fear that illegal sand mining very close to the cemetery land has serious effect on the sacred ground.
The cemetery was used to bury deceased of the Ebola disease between 2014 and 2015 and those who died during the August 14, 2017, mudslide and flood incident in Freetown. At the moment, there is an explosion of sand mining on the sea bed closed to the cemetery.
In an interview last Sunday on January 28, 2018 at the cemetery, two volunteers at the cemetery, Abubakarr Bangura and Abdulai Sesay, said sand mining undermining the cemetery and the miners’ action has a potential of removing all the muds on the cemetery if it rains.
The two volunteers said they don’t have the authority to stop the sand miners as most times when they confront them, the miners would tell them they don’t have any authority to stop them.
“Nobody cares for this cemetery, since President Koroma came here to bury the deceased of the August 14 mudslide and flood incident, no one has come to see what is happening here. We are volunteering here, and we have a simple mandate, which is to help relatives of deceased to identify graves of their dead, brush the cemetery and dig graves for private burials. These people are mining illegally here and no one stops them,” Abubakarr Bangura explained.
Abdulai Sesay, one of the volunteers, raised concern over the declining condition of the notice board, which has the numbers of all the tombs of the Ebola victims, noting that the situation has rendered their job of identifying graves for relatives very difficult.
“This cemetery, which should be a monumental one in Sierra Leone and foreign researchers, has become a neglected one. Our major problem here is the illegal sand mining, there is a big hole on the cemetery land which was created by flooding during last year’s raining season as a result of the sand mining,” he revealed.
He said initially, they were told the total acreage of the cemetery land was 52 acres but they are losing large portion of it to encroachers, who are constructing dwelling houses and mining sands.
One of the sand miners, Mohamed Allieu Turay, said they decided to embark on illegal sand mining because they were jobless.
“This is the only employment in this area. If we don’t mine sand, we will not get a means of livelihood. We are aware of the impact of their action on the cemetery, but there is no option,” he explained.
However, independent candidate in the March 7 Local Council election, Mohamed Opeh Koroma, who is vying in Ward 382 where the cemetery is situated, has vowed to protect it from the illegal sand miners as well as encroachers, if he wins the election and gains authority in the ward.
“The Ebola cemetery is very important to Sierra Leone, it will be used to identity Ward 382, and hence, we must ensure its protection, adding that he solely rehabilitated the road leading to the cemetery from 555 Spot junction,” he said.
