The Chinese-owned Kingho Investment Company says one of its trains carrying iron ore from its mining site at Ferengbeya village in Tonkolili district to the port of Pepel hit a 2 year-old girl on Saturday 20th March, 2021 near Yonkoro village in Portloko district.
According to the statement issued by the company “the 2 year-old was playing on the rail when the bucket of the moving train hit her right foot…she was rushed to the Portloko Government Hospital…we facilitated her immediate transfer to the Emergency Hospital in Freetown where she is currently in a stable condition”.
The company which took over the mines only recently said it has “engaged communities around the railway both on community radio stations and through community sensitization about the need to use the legal level crossings…we have also recruited level crossing flagmen directly from the villages close to railway to further help in protecting residence around the rails".
The iron ore miner says it “understands that the development of the company cannot be achieved without the support of communities and the communities would also benefit from our development. Thus, we expect the communities to provide an enabling environment for the optimal performance of the project.
A prominent civil society activist told Politico people are getting “very concerned about safety issues along the route of the trains and in the mines in general and we want Kingho to widen and intensify their sensitization campaigns in all the communities in their operational areas”.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (22/03/21)
