Introduction
Some parts of Sierra Leone were recently been engulfed in fits of violent outbursts. This once peaceful country, still recovering from a war that lasted more than a decade from 1991 to 2002, is currently battling a different type of war. This time around, the people of Sierra Leone are battling economic war of survival.
Causes of the protests
The current situation started when hundreds of women traders closed their shops and trooped out on the streets of Freetown, to express their frustrations over worsening economic conditions that is quickly becoming endemic and crippling of the socio-economic lives of the people; worse still, the three appears a serious incapacity by the Julius Maada Bio led government’s efforts to arrest the seemingly drifting economy.
Spurred by the women-led protest, the men and youths soon joined the fray, thus, swelling the crowd of protests into a spontaneous movement that spilled over to many areas of the country.
But the government actively denied that those protests were hunger-inspired. The nation’s Youth Minister, Mohamed Orman Bangura, believes that “Those people aren’t protesters. There is a difference between protests and riots and acts of terrorism. Protesting is different from acting as a terrorist… going against the state, killing young police officers.”
Sierra Leone’s president Julius Maada Bio, attributed the state of affairs to “malcontents who attempted to violently take over the reins of government”. This was an “insurrection that was pre-meditated, well-planned, financed, and executed with shocking brutality” by “APC Warriors, PPP, and persons determined to capture political power even at the cost of hundreds of lives”.
He corroborated his claims by citing that the unrest occurred largely in areas that are traditional strongholds of the APC, the country’s main opposition party. “The whole process was sponsored, engineered & implemented by the APC & its apparatchiks” says the Chairman of the ruling party SLPP.
This interesting perspective may explain why the government deployed troops within the troubled areas, armed with live ammunitions which they fired at protesters, killing many as a result. Four police officers were reportedly killed, according to a police statement, while an unknown number of protesters died in clashes, according to Sierra Leone’s information minister and multiple news reports.
But APC officials, including Dr. Samura Kamara, a leading flagbearer aspirant and the Secretary General of the Interim Management Committee, Ho. Abdul Kargbo, have stoutly defended the party, distancing it from the mayhem, condemning the violence and resultant deaths and calling for independent investigations and bringing perpetrators and their backers to book, reported the Sierra Leone Telegraph, in its August 17, 2022 Op ed.
Although the Chairman of the Interim Management Committee, Alfred Peter Conteh in a BBC interview, seemed to believe that elements of the APC not under his control might have had some involvement of sorts, the report further said.
Hunger runs free in Freetown and across Sierra Leone
But current economic realities on ground in the country seems to paint a gloomy picture of hardship, hyper- inflation, escalating unemployment and high cost of foods and basic amenities, which gave rise to the women’s protest that started it all. Food inflation rose to almost 28% the highest level in decades, almost doubling since September 2021.
Also, in recent months, doctors and teachers have gone on strike demanding for pay increases to meet rising inflation. Cost of foodstuffs in local and urban markets have skyrocketed to as high as 50%.
How Sierra Leone plunged into hunger
A New York Times report, says that Sierra Leone is among the world’s poorest countries, despite its extensive mineral resources and that according to the World Food Program, nearly 30 percent of Sierra Leone’s population suffers from chronic hunger, and that more than half its population lives below the poverty line.
The country’s current economic woes are blamed on the Covid-19 pandemic, which has been exacerbated by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. It appeared that the current government led by Bio, has been unable to turn the tide and arrest the downward slide of the economy. The government had also been accused of poor communication of the state of affairs, to its citizens who demand explanation for their growing economic woes. Inflation rate had doubled in Sierra Leone in recent months, moving from 11.9 per cent in February 2021 to 24.9 per cent, pushing many, especially the poorest of the poor into economic misery.
The Guardian of London, reported that the government had blocked every avenue for Sierra Leonean people to express their grievances in a legitimate way, thus, fuelling widespread anger. According to Marcella Samba-Sesay, the director of Campaign for Good Governance, a civil society group, “the government had not clearly articulated to the majority of people why the economic challenges had worsened…and that is making people angrier…” He said.
He further stated that “Anger has been rising over the authorities’ refusal to permit protests… Protest organizers usually have to ask the police for permission to protest. But most of the time, when the issues are political, the police will say no,” said Samba-Sesay.
“So, people who want to come out and protest have not been given the permission to do so.” The suppression of legitimate means of venting pent-up anger by the government, may have further provoked the violent turn of the protest that has led to the deaths of no less than 3 police officers, and 21 protesters.
What is the way out?
When it comes to economic reforms, there are often no quick fixes. With the government’s consistent denials of its economic failures, which gave rise to widespread hunger, the current peace in the country appears to be a peace of the graveyard.
The government must as a matter of urgency, quit its penchant for denial of its poor management of the nation’s economic activities, which gave impetus to widespread anger and resentments by the people of Sierra Leone, and embark on realistic reforms that would turn around the country’s economic fortunes in tangible ways, to pave the way for lasting peace to return to the country
