President Bio speaks on Sierra Leone barracks attack

Sierra Leone President, Julius Maada Bio, has spoken about the attack on a military barracks in Freetown, the country’s capital, on Sunday.

Bio, on Monday, said most of the leaders of the attack had been arrested, adding that security operations and an investigation were ongoing.

The president said on national television: “We will ensure that those responsible are held accountable.

“As your commander-in-chief, I want to assure everybody who is resident in Sierra Leone that we have overcome this challenge.”

Earlier, the government said security forces had repelled “renegade soldiers” who attempted to break into a military armoury in Freetown during the early hours of Sunday.

A nationwide curfew was imposed. Gunfire was heard across the city as the assailants attacked a prison and a police station.

It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties in the barracks attack or during the gunfire in Freetown on Sunday.

The country’s former president, Ernest Bai Koroma, in a statement, said a military guard assigned to his residence in the capital was shot point blank, while another was “whisked away to an unknown location”.

Koroma did not say who shot the guard. He condemned the killing and the attack on the barracks.

“I am deeply concerned that once again our beloved nation could be subject to such insecurity,” he said.

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 said 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 streets were mostly empty on Sunday as residents hunkered down.

“We’ll clean this society. We know what we are up to. We are not after any ordinary civilians who should go about their normal business,” one of the masked men, who was dressed in military fatigues, said before driving away.

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.

In August 2022, at least 21 civilians and six police officers were killed in anti-government protests in Sierra Leone, which is still recovering from a 1991-2002 civil war in which more than 50,000 were killed.

Bio said the protests were an attempt to overthrow the government.

In his address to the nation on Sunday night, Bio called on Sierra Leone’s political and traditional leaders, and civil society to work to preserve peace.

“Let us not succumb to fear or division,” the president said.

The Economic Community of West African States condemned what it called an attempt by certain individuals to “acquire arms and disturb constitutional order” in Sierra Leone. The U.S. embassy in Freetown said such actions were not justified.

There have been eight military coups in West and Central Africa since 2020.

The Star

Segun Ojo