Vol 59 No 14 | SIERRA LEONE Corruption inquiry takes off 13th July 2018 The new president is taking the advice of his transition team's explosive report by instituting a judicial inquiry into corruption President Julius Maada Bio's cabinet on 6 July approved a wide-ranging probe focusing on 'unexplained wealth' allegedly accumulated by former President Ernest Bai Koroma and his of...
Vol 59 No 13 | SIERRA LEONE Koroma accused of grand corruption 29th June 2018 A transition team report – exclusively obtained by AC – lists wholesale plunder, ethnic favouritism… and how ex-President Koroma profited from it President Julius Maada Bio is to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into massive state plunder and fraud during Ernest Bai Koroma's two terms of office after receiving an exp... READ FOR FREE
Vol 59 No 9 | SIERRA LEONE Narrow win constrains Bio 4th May 2018 The new President is reaching out across party lines to compensate for his lack of a majority in parliament Never one to shy away from flouting convention, President Julius Maada Bio has shown that he will not be constrained by a narrow win in the 31 March runoff, nor by his lack of a ma...
Vol 59 No 6 | SIERRA LEONE APC tries to stall election 23rd March 2018 After desperate politicians exploited ethnic allegiances, the ruling party is trying to stop the presidential runoff going ahead Few surprises were produced by Sierra Leone's presidential elections on 7 March, which saw the ruling All People's Congress presidential candidate, Samura Kamara, head to a runoff ...
Vol 59 No 5 | SIERRA LEONE Flights of fancy 9th March 2018 President Ernest Bai Koroma officially launched the Mamamah international airport project and associated 'airport city' for Freetown on 2 March, just in time to boost the prospects...
Vol 59 No 4 | SIERRA LEONE 'Usual suspects' face challenge 23rd February 2018 With two weeks to polling day, the field is surprisingly open among those wooing voters for the chance to succeed Koroma To many, the scandal surrounding the government's misuse of IMF funds to prime the electoral pump for the benefit of the ruling All People's Congress typifies the country's parlous...
Vol 59 No 3 | SIERRA LEONE Drilling down 9th February 2018 Sierra Leone's biggest mining company, Tonkolili Iron Ore, has been accused of complicity in rape, assault and the false imprisonment of a protester in a landmark case being heard ...
Vol 59 No 3 | SIERRA LEONE IMF stops funds over 'election' budget 30th January 2018 The government is spending IMF money on trying to win the election, not on agreed measures for economic recovery. The Fund has suspended payments A confidential despatch by United States diplomats in Freetown has laid bare the cause of strained relations between President Ernest Bai Koroma's government and the International ...
Vol 58 No 24 | SIERRA LEONE A homemade disaster 1st December 2017 Toothless state agencies, illegal quarrying and government inaction sowed the seeds of August's deadly mudslide The government now acknowledges that more than 1,000 people were killed in Freetown when a massive chunk of Mount Sugar Loaf, long degraded by illegal construction and blasting, sl...
Vol 58 No 22 | SIERRA LEONE One man, one vote 3rd November 2017 After much delay, President Ernest Bai Koroma has finally found a candidate he favours to take the nomination of the All Peoples Congress for the 2018 presidential election.