Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Counting began on Wednesday in Sierra Leone following a general election, as the residence of an opposition leader was raided by police. Polls closed at 5 pm as expected for the West African nation’s 3.1 million voters, who were choosing a new president, parliament and …
Read More »Sierra Leone picks new president with hopes of economic turnaround
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leoneans voted Wednesday in a general election to pick a new president, with many craving economic change and a boost to living standards in one of the world’s poorest countries. Dozens of people joined queues at a polling station visited by AFP in …
Read More »Shifting fortunes for main parties as S. Leone votes
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone holds a general election on Wednesday with uncertainty over the impact of new movements vying to break the stranglehold of two parties which have ruled since independence from Britain in 1961. President Ernest Bai Koroma is stepping down after a decade and …
Read More »Sierra Leone leader defends presidential candidate, record
Kambia, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone’s outgoing leader has defended the presidential candidate widely seen as his handpicked successor on amid accusations of personal interference, and hit out at opponents of an election day vehicle ban. The West African nation goes to the polls on Wednesday to choose …
Read More »Sierra Leone opposition ‘satisfied’ with police chief sacking
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone’s opposition on Monday said it welcomed the replacement of the country’s police chief following his sacking amid accusations of institutional political bias and endemic corruption. Former Inspector General of Police Francis Munu was reassigned to an ambassadorial post in neighbouring Liberia after being …
Read More »Sacking of Sierra Leone’s former VP ‘void’: regional court
Abuja, Nigeria | AFP | Sierra Leone’s President Ernest Bai Koroma unlawfully dismissed his vice president after he was expelled from the ruling party, a West African regional court said on Monday. Samuel Sam-Sumana was kicked out of the All People’s Congress (APC) in March 2015 on suspicion of fomenting violence, …
Read More »Sierra Leone unearths 476-carat gem in new diamond find
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone said Saturday miners had unearthed a huge 476-carat diamond, eight months after an even more valuable find in the country’s diamond-rich east. It appears to be the 29th largest diamond ever found, according to experts, but it is unclear what the hefty stone …
Read More »Top Sierra Leone FA officials indicted
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Sierra Leone’s anti-graft agency indicted the country’s football federation president Isha Johansen and secretary general Chris Kamara on six counts of abuse of office and corruption on Thursday, following a year of investigations. The indictment was issued in Freetown by Anti-Corruption Commission chief Ade Macauley, …
Read More »‘It could have been me’: S.Leone struggles to recover from disaster
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | Gathered in a Freetown church, worshippers struggled Sunday to come to terms with the devastation wrought by the flooding and mudslide that struck the Sierra Leone capital six days ago, as the arduous search for bodies continued. “I just close my eyes and imagine, I …
Read More »Death toll in SLeone flood disaster reaches 441
Freetown, Sierra Leone | AFP | The death toll from a mudslide and flooding that struck Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown has reached 441, the government said on Saturday. “Four hundred and forty-one corpses (were) buried as at yesterday,” the deputy minister of information and communication, Cornelius Deveaux, told AFP, adding that …
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