2023-12-13 10:28:20
Sierra Leone’s police chief said on Tuesday December 12 that former President Ernest Bai Koroma was a « suspect » in the organization of the events of November 26, described as “coup attempt” by the government.
“In view of the statement he voluntarily made to the police, he is one of the suspects”underlined Fayia Sellu, responding to a question from Minister of Information Chernor A. Bah, during a press conference. “The Inspector General of Police has confirmed that former President Ernest Bai Koroma is a suspect in ongoing investigations” on the attempted coup of November 26, the government then indicated in a message on social networks.
Twenty-one dead
Mr Koroma, who led Sierra Leone from 2007 to 2018, was questioned for the fourth time by police in Freetown on Tuesday. The government announced on Saturday that he had been placed under a regime similar to house arrest. Former guards of Mr. Koroma are, according to the Sierra Leonean authorities, suspected of having participated in the unrest of November 26. They published a new list of 54 wanted people, including the daughter of former President Koroma, in connection with these events.
Read also: Sierra Leone: manhunt after clashes leaving around twenty dead
According to the information minister, security forces also recovered 29 of 47 assault rifles and 5 of 7 rocket launchers from the suspected putschists. In the early hours of November 26, men attacked a military armory, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations. The fighting left 21 dead, 18 members of the security services and 3 attackers, according to the information minister. Eighty people were arrested in connection with these events, mainly soldiers, according to the authorities.
A curfew, established by the authorities from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. (local and GMT), was extended on Monday from midnight to 6 a.m., due to “improvement of the security situation”, according to the government. The West African region has been marked since 2020 by the multiplication of coups d’état, in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea.
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