Latest News from Sierra Leone: Jos Leijdekkers, the "Unreachable king of Cocaine"

 


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Solomon Berewa: the Sage | by Lans Gberie

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Archive AFP photo of former Vice President Solomon Berewa On my last day in Freetown recently, I visited Solomon Berewa, Sierra Leone’s former Vice President and unsuccessful presidential candidate in 2007, at his Goderich home. He is now very old and retired, but his schedule seemed busy. When I called a week earlier, he was on his way to Bo; and he had attended the Sierra Leone Peoples’ Party (SLPP) national convention two days before that.  I was interested in his views on that. But I was more interested in his recollections relating to the Sierra Leone government’s negotiations with the Revolution United Front, which he had led both at Abidjan and at  Lomé (the conversations relating to that are not published here).   A day before I met him, he was interviewed by the AYV for its early morning political programme [broadcast]. Mr. Berewa’s house, like all the houses in its vicinity, is in a gated compound, which is large and a bit grassy. It is a two-story...
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Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority and the prescient remark about Savage Street Bridge

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Two years ago, an executive director at Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority told everybody who would listen that the Savage Street Bridge was a disaster waiting to happen. “I would like to fix it if I had the mandate,” he reportedly told officials from the Ministry of Finance at public budget hearings held in Freetown. A prescient remark, given that Savage Street Bridge collapsed today.  This  May,  David Panda Noah, described as — one of the brains behind the SLPP election team, which engineered access to the electoral commission’s election database in 2018 — took office as Sierra Leone's  Minister of Internal Affairs. No doubt about it, Noah has his work cut out at internal affairs.   Y ou can't help but wonder what he  c ould have done differently. Or what he would say if Awoko  reached out for comment.  ( Savage Street Bridge is a disaster waiting to happen, says SLRSA Boss, by Zainab Iyamide Joaque ) Press release from the Sierr...
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Ponder My Thoughts | Freetown: Much Too Free at 225

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Freetown covers about 35 square miles and approximately 1.1 million people live within its land area.  There are huge challenges with the transport system, solid waste management and sewage management. Andrew Keili, author of Ponder My Thoughts Volume 1 , a collection of news analysis, opinion, and essays on the most talked-about topics in Sierra Leone, looks at what the city and the national government should do to ease the problems.  The city of Freetown celebrated her 225th birthday on Saturday March 11 amidst much pomp at pageantry outside the Law Courts Building. The City Authorities and the celebration committee had collaborated well to put up a good show.  Freetown Players did a good skit on the founding of the city, attributing the founding to Thomas Peters and his band of Nova Scotians who arrived in 1792. In various speeches by Mrs Cassandra Gerber (Matriarch of the Krio Descendants Union) representing the settlers/descendants, the Mayor and Vice Preside...
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