Sewa News Stream

Physicians from Médecins sans Frontières (MSF or Doctors Without Borders) have recently reported that Sierra Leone is experiencing an outbreak of monkeypox, or MPox, with an average of 120 new cases recorded daily since April 25, 2025.  MSF has rehabilitated an infectious isolation ward in the nation's capital to support the response to the outbreak. They have also donated infection prevention and control materials and installed a chlorine production unit. Furthermore, MSF donated a pickup truck and four motorbikes to the district health management team in Kenema District , located in eastern Sierra Leone, to enhance surveillance and contact tracing for MPox and Lassa Fever. With a population of 8.3 million, Sierra Leone's health system had already been struggling, as highlighted by the Ebola virus epidemic.  A 2022 study revealed that all vaccine doses came from abroad.  On April 23, 2025, Saidu Bah reported that Sierra Leone became the 14th member state of the African ...

Can Rapaport's vision of "Tikkun Olam" truly stand up against China's Belt and Road Initiative or the influence of a Dutch drug lord in Sierra Leone?  In 2017, artisanal miners from a small hamlet discovered a 709-carat diamond, later dubbed the Sierra Leone Peace Diamond. This village and the surrounding area lacked clean water, electricity, schools, health facilities, roads, or bridges. The Rapaport Group announced that for the first time, millions of dollars from the sale of the Peace Diamond will go toward providing vital infrastructure and improving the lives of some of the poorest people in the world. On March 12, 2025, the Rapaport Group announced its sixth trade mission to Sierra Leone . Serving more than 20,000 clients in over 121 countries, the Rapaport Group will lead an international delegation of diamond dealers, jewelers, and industry leaders on an immersive journey from May 4 to May 9, 2025. This trip aims to provide firsthand exposure to artisanal dia...

According to sources close to State House, a recent newspaper story about defective ambulances is not true. Mohamed Gibril Sesay, a presidential adviser, has denied claims that new ambulances bought by the government of Sierra Leone earlier this month have broken down. "The ambulance story is a blatant lie, all are working, and they are not second hand.” At the beginning of September, local papers reported that the first batch of 20 ambulances ordered by the government of Sierra Leone from Dubai had arrived at Lungi. The ambulances were received by Deputy Minister of Transport and Aviation Ibrahim Mansaray and other officials from ministries of health and sanitation, and finance and economic development. According to Mansaray, the ambulances are fully equipped and brand new, one report said. Sesay explained that some utility vehicles, which were bought quickly in-country to supply the needs of burial teams, [Ebola] surveillance teams, etcetera are secondhand. “Almost all ...

Sierra Leonean small farmers and people who depend on agriculture rely on the nation's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security. The ministry's political appointees and career civil servants have the responsibility of transforming agriculture in Sierra Leone through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) process. With CAADP, African nations have developed and are still developing agriculture strategies and sector investment programs and have pledged to devote 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture. Writing in The Guardian newspaper’s Comment is free column four years ago this September, Joseph Sam Sesay, Sierra Leone’s minister of agriculture, forestry and food security (in photo), said that between 2007 and 2009, the nation’s agricultural sector has gone from 1.6 percent of the budget to 9.9 percent in 2010. “In Sierra Leone, the fund is helping small-scale farmers move from subsistence to commercial farming, including ...