Liberia: Senator asks Washington to sanction facilitators of mining contracts

Liberian Senator Amara M. Konneh, an independent elected official for Gbarpolu County and chair of the Senate Committee on Public Accounts and Audit, has asked the United States to impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on individuals who facilitate mining license agreements in Liberia and place the profits into U.S. real estate. The request was made on October 7, 2026, during a roundtable organized in Washington by the National Endowment for Democracy, and was made public by his office on October 12, according to The Liberian Investigator.

25-year contracts negotiated solely by the executive branch

A former Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Amara Konneh denounces the broad discretionary power held by the executive in negotiating Mineral Development Agreements (MDAs), which are concluded for twenty-five years. According to him, this power allows companies to capture regulatory and tax institutions. He asserts that the mining sector accounts for 12% of the country's gross domestic product and 65% of its export revenue, while affected communities receive less than 3% of direct income. The Liberian media outlet notes that the senator's statement does not cite a source for these figures.

The senator believes that Liberia "is not yet a captured state," but that it is at the most dangerous point it has experienced since the civil war and the Ebola epidemic. He calls for "establishing transparent regulations before finalizing agreements."

Drug seizures reaching a new scale

His warning also concerns drug trafficking. In June 2026, 237 kilograms were seized at Roberts International Airport, with an estimated value of $19.2 million; in July, 3.9 tons were intercepted in Duazon, worth $317 million. Links are suspected with networks in Spain, Colombia, Serbia, Croatia, and Ukraine. Kush, a cheap synthetic drug, is circulating in Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Guinea, and Senegal. According to the 2025 UNODC report cited by the senator, opioid consumption has reached 2.35% in West and Central Africa, above the global average, and Africa accounted for 57% of pharmaceutical opioids seized worldwide between 2019 and 2023.

Five reforms announced in the Senate

The senator announced his intention to have all mining agreements published before their ratification, to establish independent oversight of transfer pricing in iron ore concessions, to make the preservation of evidence and financial investigations mandatory in first-degree drug cases, and to pass a law on unexplained wealth allowing for confiscation without a criminal conviction.

This package is the heart of the matter. Publishing a mining contract before ratifying it, monitoring transfer pricing, and confiscating unexplained wealth: these tools do not require permission from anyone abroad. The fact that the same official has to go and plead for sanctions in Washington shows how destitute Liberian institutions remain in the face of the schemes they are supposed to control—and how sovereignty over resources is won first and foremost in the parliaments of the continent.