Calm restored in Sierra Leone’s capital after attack on barracks

By Moses Muli

27.11.2023

FREETOWN, Nov 27 – Life returned to the streets of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown on Monday afternoon as shops and business opened after the government eased curfew measures imposed because of an attack on a military barracks.

Sierra Leone’s government said security forces had repelled “renegade soldiers” who attempted to break into a military armoury in Freetown during the early hours of Sunday, leading to gunfire across several neighbourhoods

President Julius Maada Bio said in an address to the West African nation on Sunday night that most of the leaders of the attack had been arrested, adding that security operations to apprehend others, and investigations were ongoing.

Bio said in his message that calm had been restored. The government also relaxed the all-day curfew, which will now run from 2100-0600 GMT.

In a show of a return to normalcy, Bio X social media account on Monday shared a picture of Bio behind his desk in his office saying he was at work.

“The task before us is too great and urgent to be derailed by those who seek to truncate the peace and security that we have enjoyed as a country,” Bio said in the post on X.

The unidentified assailants also attacked a police station and released inmates from a major prison on Sunday.

Around the neighbourhood of the prison on Monday, people went about their business as President Bio’s Chief Minister David Moinina Sengeh, visited the Pademba Road central prison.

“Cleaning started, and prisoners are already turning themselves in,” Sengeh said on a post on X.

Sierra Leone has been tense since Bio was re-elected in June, a result rejected by the main opposition candidate and questioned by international partners including the United States and the European Union.