By Umaru Fofana
Koidu Limited, Sierra Leone’s largest diamond producer, has halted operations and laid off nearly its entire local workforce of more than 1,000 employees following a protracted dispute over pay and working conditions.
Workers at the mine went on strike in December 2024 but suspended their walkout to allow negotiations. They then walked out again in early March.
Charles Kainessie, president of the Koidu Limited Workers’ Union, told Reuters that only a small number of workers were still employed at the company’s head office in Freetown.
Sierra Leone’s labour ministry has received copies of summary dismissal letters for more than 1,000 employees, it said in a statement on May 6.
Kainessie told Reuters that workers had only been receiving 30% of the value of their salaries because they were pegged to the U.S. dollar but paid in the local currency, and the company was using an exchange rate from
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