Sewa News Stream

Sierra Leone marks its 58th Independence Anniversary today. The national day celebrated on April 27 commemorates the restoration of  Sierra Leone's sovereignty in 1961 from the Britsh empire. Unfortunately, empty seats photographed on Saturday, April 27 at the national stadium in the capital city of Freetown has raised eyebrows. The stadium has a 36,000 capacity and pulls large crowds during football games.

It's not the first time photos have circulated on social media of what has been described as '24-hour, seven-days-a-week operations to carry hundreds of tonnes of sand from Freetown's beaches and sell it to builders as construction material.' The Earth Day 2019 photos from intrepid Sierra Leonean photojournalist Issam capture how free-for-all sand mining is destroying Freetown’s eco-tourism opportunities. For years, local and international reports have shown round-the-clock sand-mining on beaches within a few miles of Sierra Leone’s capital is having a devastating effect on the coastline, and destroying property. Without permits, hundreds of trucks attack the beaches on a daily basis, hiring local boys as daily laborers to destroy their own communities. Reports say that not much is being done to control the increasing demand for sand to make concrete blocks.

Lara Taylor-Pearce, Sierra Leone's auditor general, was on Radio Democracy 98.1 FM this week to dispute the missing $1 Billion said to have been stolen under the Ernest Bai Koroma administration. The fantastic amount quoted by Finance Minister Jacob Jusu Saffa and Financial Secretary Sahr Jusu was announced to create a false impression, one newspaper said. Almost two weeks ago, Bloomberg's Silas Gbandia reported finance minister J.J.Saffa said on Star Television that  Sierra Leone Public Finance Audit Shows $1 Billion Missing . According to Gbandia, Saffa pledged that the government will recover the funds by June, without specifying how it plans to do so. The report also said that President Julius Maada Bio commissioned the audit into public spending from 2015 to 2018 after his election last year. Sierra Leone's economy measured $3.7 billion in 2017. Numerous news outlets including Sierra Express Media and Cocorioko have reported on the radio interview given by ...

'Who's Up? Who's down?' No doubt, the most secure places in the world are rich, western nations. They include Finland, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Sweden, where life is generally stable. You don't need data and an index to know the most fragile countries are wracked by conflict: Yemen, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Central African Republic, Sudan, and Chad. In the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), many of the 15 members dominate the subset of most fragile states, according to the index. Yet there is a glimmer of hope. Ghana, Benin, and Senegal are where others in the region would like to be. For context, Ghana is the most secure place in West Africa, while Guinea, Sierra Leone's neighbor, is one of the most fragile. Here's how ECOWAS, with all its resource riches, stacked up. Or down. Guinea 11 Nigeria 14 Niger 18 Guinea Bissau 19 Mali 21 Cote d'Ivoire 29 Liberia 30 Togo 38 Sierra Leon...

Alhassan Jalloh, a former student at Fourah Bay College (FBC), graduated in the 1990s. Comparing the level of violence on campus now to his time at FBC, he said it is a "totally new phenomenon." Club initiations were "a bit physical but not in this kind of way,” he said. Alhassan, whose cousin fell victim to (violent hazing) said that when visited his old club during a trip from the United States, he found things were different from the way it used to be. He blamed the present scenario on post-war mentality. Dr. Edward Nahim, the only Sierra Leonean psychiatrist for years, defined violence as: “infliction of physical or psychological harm on an individual for him or her to feel severe pain or discomfort.” He said that though student violence is not new, the war and (mind-altering) drugs have accelerated the rates of violence among students. He pointed out that the main reason for students embarking on violence is drug abuse. “I spoke a lot about drug abuse at the u...

This week the United Nations published findings of its survey examining world happiness. This is the 7th World Happiness Report. The first was released in April 2012. Almost all the top-ranked countries from 2016-2018 were oil-rich states and countries in Western Europe, North America, and East Asia. There were also countries in  Central America and the Caribbean.  The survey shows that African countries are struggling with happiness. Here's how member states in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ranked in descending order: Nigeria 85 Ghana 98 Ivory Coast 99 Benin 102 Senegal 111 Niger 114 Burkina Faso 115 Guinea 118 Gambia 120 Mali 128 Sierra Leone 129 Togo  139 Liberia 141 ***The World Happiness Report is a survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries by how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. This year’s World Happiness Report focuses on happiness and the community: how happiness has evolved ...

Energy experts say most parts of Sierra Leone still have no access to a grid. Distribution lines were destroyed during the civil war, and old equipment still in place need to be replaced. With poor energy efficiency, the existing network is considered "very old" and there are immense power losses in the generation, transmission, and distribution. Many companies are forced to rely on diesel generators. New commentary by John Baimba Sesay, a former press officer in the Ernest Koroma administration, provides new insights for this timeline of Sierra Leone's energy situation as it unfolded 2007-2018. 2007 "Freetown was a dark city, with electricity supply to the city being at 5MW. But then, the government engaged the services of an independent power provider, as a short term emergency measure, to provide electricity to Freetown...There also was the rehabilitation of the Bo/Kenema Power Station thermal plants eventually expanding power generation from 2 to 5 MW. The...