Map of Western Bahr el Ghazal State: (Courtesy).

The parliament in Western Bahr el Ghazal State has summoned two Ministers and the Raja County Commissioner to answer for allegations of illegal gold mining in Raja County.

The summoned officials are the Trade Minister Akol Majok Rok, Minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement Ibrahim Suru Ibrahim, and Commissioner of Raja County Addison Arkangelo respectively.

The call came after the state Assembly received complaints from chiefs and intellectuals of Boro-Medina that foreigners were mining illegally in the area.

Speaking to Eye Radio on Friday, the MP representing Boro-Mediana at the state assembly Kamis Dayia Omer says the motion was tabled before the assembly on January 3.

“The assembly summoned the minister of Industry & Mining and the minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement and the commissioner of Raja county Arkangelo Addison to explain the ongoing gold mining in Raja county,” Dayia explained.

“My civilians in the constituency have brought forward complain of insecurity that there are foreigners that have come from Sudan and are doing gold mining in Boro-Madina,” said Dayia.

The MP said several tens of thousands of illegal gold miners from Sudan are currently in the area carrying out mining which has posed a threat of insecurity to the civil population.

Dayia also accused the Raja commissioner of unilaterally signing the memorandum of understanding with the local companies including a Sudanese mining company.

“There are only five national companies that went there for assessment and they will come back to the state.”

“But this did not happen like that. When these people reached the county and detected the gold, they immediately started mining without returning to acquire legal process,” he said.

Reacting to the matter, the state minister of Local Government and Law Enforcement Ibrahim Suru Ibrahim confirmed their appearance before the assembly over the matter.

“For sure, we were summoned as an executive to answer the allegation, in person as the minister of Local Government,” Suru told the media.

“They wanted to know what is happening in the state before these days there is a report of ongoing gold mining in Raja.”

“They were asking about these reports happening about mining because this is a national concern. I was ready and filling fear to appear, not only in Raja but all over the country there are so many minerals and people are aware of minerals in Raja, and up to now there is no mining company which is operating in Raja but what is there is just local mining.”

On his part, Raja County Commissioner Addison Arkangelo admitted that there is ongoing gold mining in Raj, saying the mining activities were agreed upon by the state government.

Arkangelo also confirmed the presence of Sudanese miners but downplayed the ten thousand figures.

He said only two thousand seven hundred are in the area for assessment.

“We have a law based on 2009 that gives the state government to invest in its minerals and what we have here is a local mining and general mining and this only deal with the local population,” said the commissioner.

“We have informed the state minister of mining that we want to carry out mining and he told us that we have to do an assessment.”

“And if there is gold found in any area in Raja, the exploring should be through a Memorandum of Understanding with any company and should be a national company, we have Wako company and Kata, these are national companies and they went more than six times in Raja.”

Meanwhile Hon. Agala Simon Rihan, the head of the Information committee at the parliament said the assembly was aware of the gold mining since 2013.

He says the process is illegal and does not benefit the locals.

“This illegal mining is not from today, it has been ongoing since 2013 to 2014 but there was no monitor on it, since acknowledged in the assembly, this process is not legal, and Raja is not benefiting from this mining,” said Rihan.

Rihan said the companies on the ground in Raja have no legal document that permits them to carry out mining.

The companies were not immediately reachable for comment.

In 2019, South Sudan government suspended the operation license of gold-mining companies in a bid to stop illegal operations.