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Article

29 Nov 2015

Author:
Lisa O’Carroll, Guardian (UK)

Sierra Leone villagers sue mining company in London high court

An iron ore firm once listed in London is being sued in a multimillion pound lawsuit over evictions and alleged violent treatment of workers and villagers living near one of its mines in Sierra Leone.  African Minerals Limited is accused of complicity in false imprisonment, assault and battery, trespass and theft of the claimants’ property…[T]he mining company denies liability, saying it has no vicarious responsibility for any actions of the police and the English courts lack jurisdiction for events in Sierra Leone…Its latest case centres on two alleged incidents near an AML mining site on the outskirts of Bumbuna town in the north of Sierra Leone, where it says landowners were subjected to unprovoked violence and harassment.  According to court filings, a number of villages were taken over and hundreds of families relocated with minimal consultation in a move to allow the company to expand its operations…[T]he villagers told the mining company they were trespassing on their lands and set up a roadblock to stop them destroying their farms and their livelihoods…

Part of the following timelines

Villagers from Sierra Leone sue mining company in UK over alleged violence

Tonkolili Iron Ore lawsuit (re complicity in violence against villagers in Sierra Leone)