confidentially speaking
The Africa Confidential Blog
SIERRA LEONE: Incoming government uncovers massive fraud under Koroma's rule
Patrick Smith
This week, we wanted to let you know about another exclusive Africa Confidential report – this time on a devastating report on
corruption and fraud in Sierra Leone over the past eight years. We also want to flag up upcoming coverage of
the two assassination attempts – in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe – and their
political implications.
SIERRA LEONE: Incoming
government uncovers massive fraud under Koroma's
rule
The new government's transition team has produced a
130-page report,
seen by Africa Confidential,
listing details of wholesale diversion of state funds, improper sale of
public assets and serial fraud under the government of President Ernest Bai Koroma. We understand
this sensitive report will arrive on the desk of new President Julius Maada Bio in the next few
days but Africa Confidential will
publish on 28 June its analysis of the winners and losers in what
appears to have been a far-reaching system of political patronage.
It goes into details about the misuse of monies intended for
education and the Ebola crisis, and illicit support for business people
close to
the then-ruling All People's Congress. The transition team has
recommended a special investigation into the state's losses that could
run into hundreds of millions billions of dollars.
One of the most extreme cases is the government's sale of its
30% stake
in the profitable Sierra Rutile company in 2012 at an extremely low
price. Africa Confidential
has spoken to several people in the mining industry with knowledge of
the transaction and will report on how the deal worked, who was
involved and what could be its international consequences.
ETHIOPIA: Prime Minister Abiy
pushes ahead with Eritrea
rapprochement
and reforms despite grenade attack
Sending a clear message, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to Addis Ababa
Airport to welcome a delegation from Eritrea on 26 June arriving in Ethopia to
open talks on implementing the Algiers Accord to end conclusively the
border war between the two states. This follows a grenade attack
on Abiy on 23 June as he was addressing a rally of around 500,000
people in Meskel Square in the capital. Dozens, possibly over 100, were
injured.
Several senior police officers have been arrested, apparently
for
negligence, in the wake of the attack but Abiy has gone on state
television insisting that it would not derail his reforms which include
opening up the economy and releasing thousands of prisoners. Last week,
Abiy said the security services and police would end their brutal
tactics under his government. This follows an extensive reshuffle
in the senior ranks of the security system. There are also signs of a
new policy on
Somalia.
ZIMBABWE: Opposition
sceptical about government calls for a
peace pact
in wake of attack on President Mnangagwa
Nelson Chamisa,
presidential candidate of the opposition MDC Alliance,
has reiterated his doubts about the government's commitment to free and
fair elections and characterised its call for a peace accord between
the rival political parties as a stunt. Speaking to the BBC World
Service on 26 June, Chamisa said the problem in Zimbabwe was mainly
violence by the state against opposition parties and their supporters.
Chamisa condemned the
attack on Mnangagwa on 23 June, in which the government says that two
people died, but said it was caused by faction-fighting within ZANU-PF.
Neither Mnangagwa nor Chamisa turned up at the signing of the
peace accord on 26 June. Nor has the government or the Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission responded to the MDC's concerns about the lack of
access to the full electoral register and other restrictions,
exacerbating concerns about the credibility of the election due on 20
July, acceptance of its results.
THE WEEK AHEAD IN VERY BRIEF
SOUTH SUDAN
President
Salva Kiir
and
Riek Machar open second
round of peace talks in Khartoum under eyes of Sudan's President
Omer
el-Beshir and
Uganda's
President
Yoweri Museveni
MALI
Civil servants' strike over pay and security could
threaten the
organisation of national elections due on 29 July after another spate
of attacks in the central
region
NIGERIA
Plateau state imposes a curfew after herder-farmer
clashes kill over 80
in weekend attacks raising fresh questions about central government's
policies on the crisis
