Sewa News Stream

The silence from both media and watchdogs on the photograph of the president of Sierra Leone in church with drug lord Jos Leijdekkers, shared by the first lady, underscores a systemic lack of public accountability. Only two reporters, who fled for their safety, have addressed the issue.  Other than that, there's been no outrage from watchdogs or media outlets, no condemnation for hosting a convict wanted by the Netherlands, and no questioning of military and police chiefs who are allegedly receiving protection money from Leijdekkers or the president's daughter, who was received in the United States to have Leijdekkers' baby in New York.  As Sierra Leone's media pretend to look the other way, they devote time to outrage over a Freetown city council executive who refuses to call himself the deputy mayor amid the opposition boycott.  Meanwhile, Augustine Navo, a founding member of Foh Di Pupil Newspaper and a media developer, analyst, and legal practitioner based in Londo...

The  United States Army ROTC has posted a YouTube video  featuring Old Dominion University ROTC cadets who stopped a terrorist after he killed an ROTC professor of military science and injured two cadets. In the 17-minute video, the cadets share their experiences from inside the classroom for the first time. Cadet Louis Ancheta, who received the Purple Heart and Meritorious Service Medal, is a student at Old Dominion University and also serves in the U.S. Army Reserve. Cadet Wesley Myers, who also received a Meritorious Service Medal, explained that he was preparing to give a presentation that day and wanted to make sure everything was ready. Ancheta remembered Colonel Shaw’s advice that media issues are one of the biggest presentation problems. Despite feeling nervous, the class went smoothly, and Colonel Shaw was about to dismiss everyone. Cadet Oshea Bego, a military science IV student, said it was probably the only day the whole class stayed because of the presentations. C...

Recently, Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, published a case study of Hezbollah by Dr. Eitan Azani, who is also in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and has operational, research, and academic experience in counter-terrorism in regional and international arenas. The ICT study at Reichman University dissects Hezbollah as a calculated “hybrid terrorist organization”—one that fuses political ambitions, social entrenchment, and military muscle. It scrutinizes its tactical evolution, financial engines, and its trademark strategy of skirting legal and ethical lines. Researchers drill into banking webs, global tentacles, and weapons of psychological manipulation, sourcing even The Calabash newspaper reports. On Saturday, I asked Amin Kef Sesay, managing editor of The Calabash Newspaper, a question on X (formerly Twitter). I asked why the Reichman University report had focused solely on the family of Hussein Fawaz—a Lebanese man in Sierra Leone shot in a bar fight with Jos Leijdekkers, a ...