The ECOWAS Court has announced that it will deliver its judgment on May 31, 2023, in a case brought by a Sierra Leonean community alleging the violation of their human rights by the government of Sierra Leone due to its failure to protect them from health hazards caused by the operations of a diamond mining company in the community.

The presiding judge, Justice Gberi-Be Ouattara, revealed the date after notifying the parties of a change in the panel of judges due to the expiration of the tenure of one of the judges in the previous panel for the case.

In the initiating application filed before the Court on August 29, 2019, Sia Momoh and seven others asked the Court to hold the Sierra Leonean government liable for its failure to protect them from human rights abuses caused by the operations of the company.

According to the lead counsel for the Applicants, Mr Chernor Benedict Jalloh, the government violated the applicants' right to life, right to human dignity, right to a suitable environment with access to clean water, safe housing free from environmental pollution and destruction of farmlands, right to property, health, and freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention.

The lawyer also explained that the applicant and the other complainants were victims of the fallout of two violent protests, the first by the host community in December 2007 over the impact of the activities of the company, and the second in 2012, initially by the company's workers who were later joined by the community.

He added that the explosives used by the company were determined to be dangerous following an environmental impact assessment undertaken by the company, based on which the company was obliged to relocate families willing to move.

Furthermore, the lawyer stated that the company acted contrary to the agreement as families that refused to move were forcibly ejected, and their properties destroyed by agents of the government in support of the mining company, resulting in a violent protest that left some dead and others wounded.

The company denied liability, although it disbursed a “goodwill donation” through the Ministry of Mines, which was insufficient to cover the medical bills of the victims.

The government set up a judicial commission, the Jenkins-Johnson Commission, to determine the level of involvement of state security agents and make recommendations.

The applicants alleged that the report of the commission, which was submitted in 2008, indicted the state security agents and recommended, among others, the prosecution and disciplining of officers indicted, the amendment of the police rules of engagement, the reform of the mining laws and practices, and the suspension of the blasting undertaken by the company until after the resettlement of the indigenes.

However, the lawyer also told the Court that the government did not implement any of the recommendations, thereby exposing the indigenes of the community to continuous rights violations.

He reiterated that the victims of the 2012 protest received no compensation of any kind, and the security agents had not been prosecuted to date.

The affected victims comprising those awaiting relocation by the mining company and those already relocated but who were not adequately accommodated by the company formed an association – Marginalised Affected Property Owners Limited (MAPO) to advocate for their right to remedies.

The lawyer added that the victims' standard of living had regressed due to lack of compensation, environmental degradation, inadequate accommodation, poor health conditions, poor access to clean water, and loss of property as a result of the activities of the company, while some of their lands were turned to dump sites or flooded from diverted water channels.

The applicants also said that they wrote a letter of complaint to the Sierra Leone Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) but to no avail.