Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, speaks in the beginning of the Transforming Education Summit on the United Nations headquarters, in September 2022. Bio declared a nationwide curfew after gunmen attacked the West African nation’s main military barracks in the capital.
Seth Wenig/AP file picture
disguise caption
toggle caption
Seth Wenig/AP file picture
Julius Maada Bio, President of Sierra Leone, speaks in the beginning of the Transforming Education Summit on the United Nations headquarters, in September 2022. Bio declared a nationwide curfew after gunmen attacked the West African nation’s main military barracks in the capital.
Seth Wenig/AP file picture
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Sierra Leone’s president declared a nationwide curfew Sunday after gunmen attacked the military’s main and largest barracks in the West African nation’s capital after which overran detention facilities, together with a serious jail.
The assault raised fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.
The detention facilities, together with the Pademba Road Prisons — holding greater than 2,000 inmates — had been attacked simply as safety forces fought to revive calm throughout sustained shootouts on the Wilberforce military barracks, in line with Information Minister Chernor Bah.
“The prisons were overrun (and) some prisoners were abducted by the assailants while many others were released,” Bah mentioned. Security forces managed to “push back” the assailants to the outskirts of the town the place preventing continues, he added.
Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio earlier declared a nationwide curfew in response to the assaults.
An Associated Press journalist in the capital mentioned that gunshots had been nonetheless heard in the town hours after the federal government assured residents of calm, though it wasn’t clear who was behind the change of fireplace, nor if any arrests had been made.
“The security forces are making progress in the operation to defeat and apprehend those responsible for today’s attacks,” Bah mentioned. “The government remains in control and on top of the situation.”
The president and the nation’s Ministry of Information and Education additionally each mentioned that the federal government and safety forces are in management of the scenario, attempting to dismiss fears of a attainable escalation of violence in the nation whose inhabitants of eight million individuals is among the many poorest in the world, having a number of the lowest scores on the U.N. Human Development Index.
No particulars had been instantly given concerning the gunmen or the rationale for the assault, which comes months after Bio was reelected for a second time period in a disputed vote in which the main opposition social gathering accused the electoral fee of rigging the outcomes.
Videos posted on-line confirmed troopers patrolling Freetown’s empty streets and captured the loud blasts of gunshots at daybreak. The AP could not instantly confirm the authenticity of the movies.
West Africa’s regional financial bloc ECOWAS — of which Sierra Leone is a member — described the incident as a plot “to acquire arms and disturb the peace and constitutional order” in the nation. The bloc has in current months tried to reverse the surge in coups in West and Central Africa, which has recorded eight military takeovers since 2020, the newest in Niger and Gabon this yr.
“ECOWAS reiterates its zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government,” the bloc mentioned in an announcement.
Bio was reelected in Sierra Leone’s fifth presidential election for the reason that finish of a brutal 11-year civil warfare — greater than twenty years in the past — which left tens of hundreds of individuals useless and destroyed the nation’s economic system.
He continues to face criticism due to debilitating financial situations. Nearly 60% of Sierra Leone’s inhabitants is dealing with poverty, with the youth unemployment price being one of many highest in West Africa.
Two months after Bio received the disputed vote, police mentioned they arrested a number of individuals, together with senior military officers planning to make use of protests “to undermine peace” in the nation.
A protest towards the federal government in August final yr resulted in the deaths of greater than 30 individuals, together with six law enforcement officials.