Published January 25, 2020

Right of reply to press articles entitled:
“ Congo : the Mayoko Iron Ore mine closes ”

To whom it may concern,

I, the undersigned Paul Obambi, acting as Executive Director of Sapro Mayoko, hereby intend to make use of our right of reply, following articles published on the AfricaNews and Les Echos de Brazzaville websites.

On January 24, 2020, these websites published articles entitled “Congo: the Mayoko iron mine closes” in which the company I represent was directly implicated.

Said articles stated that our company had ceased operations in the Mayoko mine, in the Niari province, near the Gabonese border.

Sapro Mayoko strongly disputes these allegations, which amount to a smear campaign, of which the company and its employees are victims.

In fact, Sapro Mayoko continues its activities in Congo-Brazzaville, with the support of local populations and its partners, both national and international, who all aim to make Congo a major player on the iron market.

The denounced articles constitute a set of fake news which indicate a blatant lack of professionalism by their authors and constitute crimes punishable by law. Indeed, to date no journalist has taken the trouble to verify the veracity of this information. If this had been the case, the authors would have discovered that we are continuing our development by producing quality iron ore which is the subject of significant demand on the international market.

We reserve the right to prosecute the authors of these articles and any entity or person who disseminates them.

We demand the removal of these defamatory articles and the publication of our entire response on the offending websites.

Thank you for your attention to our right of reply, please accept, Madam, Sir, our best regards.

Paul OBAMBI 
Executive Director  
SAPRO MAYOKO