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KOKOYAH DISTRICT, Bong County \u2013 On an early Friday morning last month, men dressed up in country clothes moved through a forest and arrived at a mining camp on the banks of the St. John River. Miners fled into the bush as they failed to escape with their makeshift dredges. The men, with hammers, machetes and a container of gasoline, destroyed one of three to the cries of its nervous owners. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was an operation conducted by a task force of the National Traditional Council of Chiefs in Bong County. Its mission was to rid the sacred waters of illegal miners in the Kokoyah and Panta districts.\u00a0 The one-month operation stemmed from a 2019 moratorium on dredging, which was lifted last June, according to an official document.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe miners are going on our traditional waters using a lot of mercury,\u201d said Aphonso Diggs, the task force\u2019s head. \u201cThose dredges are depleting our waters. It is just disturbing!\u201d He said that the operation was independent of the Ministry of Mines and Energy, but that the regulator was aware. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This reporter counted 10 members of the task force, \u00a0including armed anti-riot police officers. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The operation had started days before the raid in Sayweh Town, near David Dean\u2019s Town, a famous mining town in Bong County. Videos The DayLight obtained show the task force burning dredges in the Rock Crusher town and Willie Village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The raid comes at a time when the Ministry of Mines and Energy has legalized dredging, which is associated with the use of mercury, a chemical detrimental to human and the environment. Permits for small and large-scale mining are US$10,000 and US$1,500, respectively. No permits have been issued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dredge owners The DayLight interviewed said they wanted to get permits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf they were going to tell us to get [a permit], it wouldn\u2019t have been bad,\u201d said Henry Kromah, a dredge owner in Sayweh Town. \u201cI would have gotten our documents because I don\u2019t like stress.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Diggs accused Ministry of Mines\u2019 agents in the district of collecting L$10,000 from illicit miners weekly, a claim the agents deny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat is false. I am not aware [of any payments],\u201d said Rufus Garkpah, a Ministry of Mines agent in the region, in a telephone interview. \u201cHow can I be in Monrovia and be collecting money from somebody?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Interestingly, miners and townsmen interviewed accused the task force of collecting bribes from dredge owners and runners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNormally, they only come for money. They collect money and go,\u201d said James Tokpah, one of the illicit miners in Rock Crusher. A day after the task force\u2019s raid, this reporter saw three dredges operating, while two burned ones floated on the riverbank.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter a while, you will see another group come and collect and they go. That is what they do in this area,\u201d Tokpah added. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Diggs denies any wrongdoing. He said he was only interested in getting illicit miners from rivers and streams across the countryside. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Diggs said, \u201cIf they don\u2019t leave, we will still remove.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The DayLight produced this content with support from the Embassy of Ireland through Integrity Watch Liberia. The DayLight maintained editorial independence over its content, which does not reflect the position of the Embassy of Ireland or Integrity Watch Liberia.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dredges on the St. John River in the Kokoyah District, Bong County. The DayLight\/Esau J. Farr By Esau J. Farr KOKOYAH DISTRICT, Bong County \u2013 On an early Friday morning last month, men dressed up in country clothes moved through a forest and arrived at a mining camp on the banks of the St. John […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mining"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Traditional Task Force Removes Dredges from Rivers","description":"On an early Friday morning last month, men dressed up in country clothes moved through a forest and arrived at a mining camp on the banks of the St. John River.","canonical_url":"https:\/\/stage.thedaylight.org\/wp68\/2026\/03\/17\/traditional-task-force-removes-dredges-from-rivers\/","robots":"noindex, nofollow, max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"msvalidate.01":"CA6BD2F84653EA44942A55ABC0B35372","miscellaneous":""},"schema":null,"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"The DayLight - The DayLight is a nonprofit, environmental news website. 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