AML-Affected Communities Reject Sen. Twayen Claims -Describe Anti-AML Remarks as Disruptive, Out of Place

By H Matthew Turry 

MONROVIA – The affected communities of Arccelor Mittal in Nimba County through former Nimba County Senatorial Candidate Armstrong Gobac Selekpoh has rejected Senator Nya D. Twayen’s recent statement against the expansion of the Arccelor Mittal Phase II MDA.

Speaking at the press conference on behalf of the affected communities in Monrovia on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, Armstrong Gobac Selekpoh said Senator Twayen was seeking to desperately disrupt ongoing negotiations between the government and AML that would benefit the people of Nimba County.

In less than one year, he claimed that the senator has “become completely unpopular and is now using ArcelorMittal as a rallying point to regain favor from the people”.

“He sees the current Superintendent of Nimba as a threat to is Senate seat and for the fact that the Superintendent has been mobilizing the people of Nimba to have their views factored into the new MDA, while Nya is so unsettled and he is now attacking the company,” Armstrong Gobac Selekpoh further asserted.

He noted that in all his years with the government, Senator Nya Twayen was at NASSCORP and never attended any meeting concerning the concession, and never supported any student group or community in terms of undertaking development initiatives.

The AML-affected communities advocate recounted that in July 2013, Senator Nya Twayen defended the government’s decision to seize the Nimba County social development fund to compensate for the destruction caused by citizens,  when Nya was at NASSCORP allegedly milking free money.

“I have been one of those lead advocates in the mines affected communities for 13 years working with young people and we were able to take a challenge with Arccelor Mittal where we stage 52 demonstrations asking for the implementation of what was in the MDA in making sure that improvement can take place after the July 3^, 2013 demonstration,” he added.

He added: “Having done these things, we are seeing lot of improvements taking place at Arccelor Mittal. Arccelor Mittal was able to achieved 21 commitments under the MDA. Out of the 21 commitment14 were fulfill. Senator Nya doesn’t care about the nearly 10,000 jobs created by AML now but he is bent of pushing the company out of Liberia by his shameful comments yesterday.”

According to the people’s advocate, AML recently administered LAB test to about 1000 youths from the Fenceline communities and that from the results, some youths from will be going directly to the VTC, while about 80+ are being processed for the ADT, 150 are being recruited directly for various jobs that were difficult to get before.

Pointing to Arccelor Mittal’s achievements towards the concession areas in Nimba County and Liberia, Armstrong Gobac Selekpoh said AML went beyond its MDA commitments and obligations to invest $47 million in socioeconomic growth and development of communities in its operational areas and elsewhere in Liberia.

He recounted that Arccelor Mittal Liberia also carried out on major works which includes, Railroad rehabilitation (243 km completed), Port rehabilitation (Buchanan port operational), Reporting & Documentation (storage of records), Employment quotas (met or exceeded all MDA targets).

Others, he said, include the vocational training center (rehabilitated and expanded), advanced scholarships program (99 awarded, 46% graduated), access to schooling for dependents (1,080 students enrolled), taxes and royalties (over $424 million paid), amongst others.

It can be recalled that on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, the Senator of Nimba County Nya D. Twayen criticized the expansion of Arccelor Mittal phase II Mineral Development Agreement (MDA) following the commissioning of the newly constructed 1.8 million Concentor in Tokadeh Nimba County.

Senator Nya Twayen in his press conference contended that since the inception of the MDA, the people of Nimba—especially those in the directly affected concession areas—have waited in vain for meaningful improvements in their lives. While AML has continued its lucrative mining operations and boasts of a $1.4 billion infrastructure expansion.

He AML has failed to improve the socioeconomic conditions of communities within its operational footprint, and that despite being in Nimba for about two decades, the people in and around Yekepa live without basic amenities and face daily hardships, contradicting the expectation of shared benefits from natural resource extraction,” Senator Twayen said.