17 Nimbaians Die In Sinoe Diamond Mine
By: Obadiah Karnah, II
Forum
Monrovia, Liberia
Distributed by
The Perspective
Atlanta, Georgia
Speaking to FORUM, Emmanuel Karbor, who is a surviving victim of the disease, said most of the people that died in the area hailed from Zoe Geh Statutory District in Nimba County.
Our reporter who just returned from Nimba County saw some family members in Nimba making frantic efforts to raise money in order to rescue their kinsmen. Over LD8000 was said to have been raised by the family members to repatriate those that are said to be in critical condition.
According to Mr. Karbor, among the 12 young men who left Nimba and Monrovia
in search of fortune in the wake of the news of discovery of diamond deposit
of which he was a part, only three survived. Mr. Karbor attributed the deaths
of these young men to lack of medicine in that forest area.
He named the 26-year-old Cooper Zardeh, John Keah and David Dahn, among
others that died instantly.
He also disclosed that apart from the 12 persons that went along with him,
there were other Nimbaians resident in the area who became the victims of
the same disease.
Meanwhile, worried family members in Zoe Geh District have dispatched
some vehicles to Sinoe County in an effort to evacuate those that are reportedly
stranded in the county as a result of the disease outbreak.
Mr. Karbor said that if nothing is done to arrest the situation more deaths
would occur in the area.
At the same time, authorities at the Ministry of Health & Social Welfare
are said to have dispatched a mobile medical team into the county for an
assessment.
Recently, the Transport Minister, Dr. Vamba Kanneh, who is also a medical practitioner disclosed that the disease killing the people in the diamond area of Sinoe was not cholera but the result of drinking water which was poisoned by people.
