World Courant
The federal government says it has full management after an armed assault within the capital and a nationwide curfew.
Sierra Leone has arrested a lot of the leaders of an armed assault within the capital that prompted the federal government to announce a nationwide curfew, the nation’s president mentioned.
“A lot of the leaders have been arrested. Safety operations and investigations are ongoing,” President Julius Maada Bio mentioned on nationwide tv on Sunday after armed clashes in Freetown following what the federal government mentioned was an assault on a navy arsenal.
The federal government mentioned it had repelled the assault and had the scenario underneath management. The incident came about amid months of post-election unrest within the West African nation.
The “authorities has the safety scenario in Freetown firmly underneath management, the attackers are retreating,” Info Minister Chernor Bah advised the AFP information company.
Sierra Leone’s Civil Aviation Authority has additionally urged airways to reschedule flights.
An AFP journalist mentioned calm was slowly returning to the capital on Sunday night, however checkpoints closely guarded by safety forces remained in place.
“We try to collect the variety of arrests and casualties,” Bah mentioned, including that “these chargeable for at this time’s assault can be hunted right down to face the complete pressure of the regulation.”
Movies posted on social media appeared to point out males in uniform arrested within the again or subsequent to a navy pickup.
Earlier within the day, witnesses advised AFP they heard gunshots and explosions within the metropolis’s Wilberforce district, the place the armory and a few embassies are positioned.
Different witnesses reported gun battles close to a barracks within the Murray City district, residence to the navy, and outdoors one other navy website in Freetown.
The Ministry of Info reported assaults on prisons earlier within the day, forcing safety forces to withdraw. “The prisons have been thus overrun,” with some prisoners launched and others “kidnapped,” the report mentioned.
A video on social networks prompt that quite a few prisoners had escaped from the central jail.
In an announcement issued on Sunday, West Africa’s regional bloc, the Financial Group of West African States (ECOWAS), condemned the try and disrupt the constitutional order in Sierra Leone.
Growing unrest for the reason that president’s re-election
Sierra Leone has skilled political violence and unrest for the reason that re-election of President Bio in June.
These elections have been the fifth for the reason that finish of Sierra Leone’s 11-year civil conflict greater than 20 years in the past, which left tens of 1000’s useless and devastated the nation’s financial system.
Worldwide observers condemned the “lack of transparency” within the vote counting and Sierra Leone’s opposition celebration initially disputed the outcomes and boycotted the federal government.
Since his election victory 5 months in the past, Bio continues to face criticism over weakening financial situations. Almost 60 p.c of Sierra Leone’s greater than seven million residents are impoverished and youth unemployment is among the many highest in West Africa.
The unrest in Sierra Leone comes after a sequence of navy coups which have dealt blows to democracy within the area. Since 2020, there have been eight navy coups in West and Central Africa, together with in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea.
President Sierra Leone says ‘most leaders’ of unrest have been arrested | Information
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