Sierra Leone - The African Mirror

Apr

2024

West Africa’s Benin, Liberia and Sierra Leone launch malaria vaccination

BENIN, Liberia and Sierra Leone launched large-scale malaria vaccine programmes on Thursday under an Africa-focused initiative that hopes to save tens of thousands of children's lives per year across the continent. The three West African countries are the latest to participate after successful rollouts of routine malaria immunization for children in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the global vaccine alliance GAVI said in a statement. The World Health Organization-approved vaccine is meant to work alongside existing tools such as bed nets to combat malaria, which in Africa kills nearly half a million children under the age of 5 each year.…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone allows ex-president Koroma to leave country on medical grounds

NEWS

A Sierra Leone high court allowed ex-president Ernest Bai Koroma, charged this month with treason, to travel abroad on medical grounds. Koroma, 70, was charged with four offences for his alleged role in a failed military attempt to topple the West African country's government in November. There are concerns Koroma's indictment could stoke tension brought by a contentious election in which President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second term in June 2023. The main opposition candidate rejected the results and international partners questioned the vote. Months later, on November 26, gunmen attacked military barracks, a prison and other locations in…

Jan

2024

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone charges ex-president’s guard, 11 others over failed coup

NEWS

SIERRA Leone authorities have charged 12 people with treason in connection with a failed coup in November, including a member of former President Ernest Bai Koroma's security detail, the government said. Gunmen attacked a military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone on November 26, freeing about 2,200 inmates and killing more than 20 people in what the authorities said afterwards was an attempt to overthrow the government. The accused were arraigned before a magistrate in the capital Freetown on Tuesday, the information ministry said in a statement, adding that they included ex-police and correctional officers and former Koroma…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone court orders opposition leader’s arrest for suspected graft

NEWS

SIERRA Leone's Court of Appeal has ordered the arrest of the opposition candidate who was runner-up in presidential elections this year for suspected corruption linked to the sale of government shares in a mining company, it said in a statement. Samuel Kamara was the candidate for the opposition All People's Congress Party (APC) in 2018 and in June. He was indicted in 2021 for alleged graft involving a separate matter when he was foreign minister. The trial is ongoing and he denies wrongdoing. The Court of Appeal on Tuesday ordered Kamara to be arrested and handed over to the anti-corruption commission for…

Dec

2023

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone ex-president Koroma summoned for questioning over failed coup

NEWS

SIERRA Leone police have summoned former president Ernest Bai Koroma for questioning as part of their investigation into a failed coup attempt on November 26, information minister Chernor Bah said in a statement. Koroma is invited to report to the headquarters of the Criminal Investigations Department in Freetown within 24 hours, the statement said. Koroma said he would honour the invitation. "I maintain an open mind and stand ready to support the police investigations to the fullest. Let the rule of law reign supreme in our democracy", Koroma said in a statement, calling on the public to remain calm. Gunmen…

Nov

2023

By UMARU FOFANA

Twenty killed in Sierra Leone attack and nearly 2,000 prisoners escape

NEWS

TWENTY people were killed and nearly 2,000 inmates escaped during an attack on a military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone, officials said. The West African country was thrown into panic in the early hours when the assailants sent gunfire ringing across the capital Freetown. The government blamed "renegade soldiers" that it said had been repelled. President Julius Maada Bio said in an address on Sunday that most of the leaders of the attack had been arrested and that efforts to apprehend others were underway. An investigation has been launched, he said. Army spokesman Colonel Issa Bangura…

Nov

2023

By UMARU FOFANA

Sierra Leone repels attack by ‘renegade soldiers’ on Freetown barracks

NEWS

SIERRA Leone said it had pushed "renegade soldiers" who attempted to break into a military armoury in Freetown during the early hours of Sunday back to the outskirts of the capital and had restored calm, after imposing a nationwide curfew. The West African country's civil aviation authority urged airlines to reschedule flights after the curfew was declared, while a soldier on its frontier with neighbouring Guinea told Reuters they had been instructed to shut the border. A Reuters journalist, who earlier witnessed an armed group of men commandeer a police vehicle near the Wilberforce barracks, said nearby streets were mostly empty. "We'll…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone election observers urge transparent tallying as unrest simmers

NEWS

COOPER INVEEN SIERRA Leone counted votes in a tense presidential election following violence and the death of an opposition party volunteer at the weekend, as international observers voiced concern about a lack of transparency in the tallying of ballots. Provisional results are expected within 48 hours of Saturday's vote, in which incumbent President Julius Maada Bio ran for a second term against a backdrop of public frustration over growing economic hardship in the West African nation. The head of the main All People's Congress (APC) opposition party, Samuel Kamara, is seen as Bio's main rival. Police fired tear gas at supporters…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Woman severely wounded at Sierra Leone opposition HQ after election

NEWS

A woman was severely wounded and unresponsive in Sierra Leone's opposition party headquarters as police surrounded the building during a news conference one day after the presidential election, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. The person, who Reuters could not immediately identify, was badly wounded around the neck area and had no pulse. The window of the room she was found in had a shattered hole the size of a fist, the reporter said. It is not immediately clear what happened outside the press conference or what happened to the woman. Two witnesses who were inside the building told…

Jun

2023

By The African Mirror

Sierra Leone opposition leader decries lack of access ahead of Saturday’s vote

NEWS

SIERRA Leone's main opposition candidate said the lack of election campaign access to some strongholds of the ruling party and unsupervised distribution of ballots could open the door to rigging. Some 3.4 million Sierra Leoneans are expected in the polls on Saturday for a general election in which Samura Kamara of the opposition All People's Congress (APC) is seen as the main challenger against incumbent President Julius Maada Bio. Kamara, a former foreign minister, narrowly lost to Bio in the 2018 presidential race. Tensions in the last days of the campaign have led to the cancellation of rallies and clashes at an…