More than 360 families who were forcibly relocated to make way for the expansion of AngloGold Ashanti’s mine in Siguiri, Guinea will be compensated by the company. The agreement concludes a six-year mediation process facilitated by the World Bank Group’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman.
The Guinea-based subsidiary of mining giant AngloGold Ashanti, one of the world’s largest gold mining companies, has agreed to a financial settlement with families who were forcibly relocated to make way for its gold mine in Siguiri prefecture in late 2015 and 2016. A joint statement published today describes key elements of the confidential settlement agreement, which was signed in Coyah, Guinea on 13 September 2024.
A portion of the total settlement amount will be provided directly to the affected families for individual compensation and the rest will be paid into a trust fund to support community-led development and livelihood restoration projects. The agreement concludes a six-year mediation process, during which a series of interim agreements were reached on a range of issues from access to water and schools to security and human rights.
“We are overjoyed to have reached this agreement,” said Balla Camara, a community leader and former mayor of the local township. “When we began our struggle, nobody believed we would get one franc from this company and we were told to give up, but we persisted and today we can hold our heads high again.”
More than 360 families were driven from their land and homes in a cluster of villages that became known as “Area One” in Siguiri Prefecture—many of them artisanal miners, merchants and farmers whose ancestors have lived in the region for more than 800 years.
Role of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private sector arm
The settlement agreement announced today concludes a series of mediations between the company and the Area One community that began in July 2018 under the auspices of the World Bank Group’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO). The mediations were initiated after affected communities filed a complaint to the CAO regarding the IFC’s financial ties to the mine operator.
The complaint, filed with the support of Guinean non-governmental organizations Mêmes Droits Pour Tous (MDT) and Centre du Commerce International pour le Développement (CECIDE), and the international human rights group Inclusive Development International, outlined how the IFC was linked to the Siguiri mine expansion through its client, Nedbank, which provided a general-purpose loan to AngloGold Ashanti in 2015, the year the evictions began. The complaint described how the evictions were carried out in the context of violence, intimidation and arbitrary arrests by state security forces, and how the community was resettled into dire conditions, without access to water, schooling or healthcare and no effort to restore their livelihoods.
“The suffering endured by the Area One community cannot be undone. But this settlement will go a long way to helping the community rebuild the livelihoods they lost to the mine, said Aboubacar Diallo, Executive Director of CECIDE.
“This final agreement took a long time to obtain, but we must commend the leaders of AngloGold Ashanti for remaining engaged in the dialogue process all these years and finally delivering a satisfactory remedy to the families who were harmed by the expansion of the Siguiri mine,” said Fréderic Foromo Loua, Executive Director of MDT.
Over the seven years of CAO-facilitated mediations, the parties signed several interim agreements relating to security and human rights and improved infrastructure and basic services at the resettlement site. As part of the final settlement, the company has promised to fulfill its outstanding or ongoing commitments in relation to these agreements, including completing work at the primary school and market, repairs to the health post, dust suppression on the main roads and upgrading the drainage system at the resettlement site. The final settlement agreement also reaffirms the company’s ongoing responsibility to cooperate in any judicial investigations related to allegations of human rights abuses within its area of operations; to early and accessible disclosure of mining exploitation plans to those who may be affected by those plans; and, if further resettlement is necessary to implement its mining plans, to engage in a transparent and meaningful process of informed and participative consultation with affected communities, aligned with the IFC Performance Standards and the principles of Free, Prior and Informed Consent.
A rare victory for communities seeking remedy for mining-related harms
The Sustainable Development Fund that will be established as part of the final settlement includes innovative provisions to ensure community ownership and broad-based participation, along with financial transparency and good governance. IFC has also agreed to support the remediation process by providing technical assistance to the community to help them identify sustainable and feasible livelihood development projects—a first for the development finance institution, which has been working for the last two years to finalize its Approach to Remedial Action.
“This was a tremendous victory for the Area One community, which will be an inspiration to mining-affected communities around the world,” said David Pred, executive director of Inclusive Development International. “Sadly, comprehensive remedial outcomes like this are exceedingly rare for communities that file complaints to development finance accountability mechanisms, and this is the first time we’ve ever seen the IFC actively support a resolution in this way. We hope this case will be a harbinger of change and that we will start to see more examples of development banks supporting remediation efforts when their investments cause harm.”
The CAO will monitor implementation of the global agreement for two years.
A photo essay of the Area One community’s struggle and victory is available here.
For more information on the case.
Photo: Area One community and negotiators celebrate conclusion of settlement agreement. Source: Inclusive Development International.
