Relatives of Sierra Leoneans killed in recent riots over rising prices and the government went to identify them at a morgue in the capital Freetown on Monday.

A small crowd showed up at Connaught Hospital after a call from authorities on Friday.

“We received 31 bodies,” said morgue worker Sinneh Kamara.

Five of the deceased are police officers, 26 civilians, he said.

No official report of the riots has been published to date.

“The majority of the victims bore marks of gunshot wounds.

We will carry out autopsies before returning the bodies to the families,” said Sinneh Kamara.

The capital and other cities like Makeni and Kamakwie (north) were rocked on August 10 by violent clashes between security forces and young demonstrators protesting against rising prices and demanding the departure of President Julius Maada Bio, elected in 2018 The violence prompted authorities to suspend the internet and institute a curfew, which has since been lifted.

A hunted opposition?

A group accused by the government of being the cause of the unrest, People's Power In Politics, based abroad, accused the president of having launched a brutal campaign against the opposition in view of the presidential and legislative elections of 2023.

Henchmen summarily executed 34 people, the PPP said in a statement over the weekend, without specifying when it happened.

He also said that 320 people, mainly opposition figures or sympathizers, had been arrested since August 10.

The PPP has said its intention to organize a new demonstration, on an unspecified date.

The president defends himself

The police admitted to having carried out operations after August 10 to arrest the perpetrators of the violence.

She admitted that during one of them on August 14, an influencer and member of the main opposition party was killed in an exchange of gunfire.

President Bio accused the opposition of seeking to overthrow the government.

In an interview broadcast by the BBC on Saturday, he denied any extrajudicial executions and defended his government against accusations of human rights violations.

He invoked the international context to explain Sierra Leone's economic difficulties.

“With rising prices (in international markets), I cannot protect the people of this country.

On the other hand, I can make sure that we cushion the effects of what is happening elsewhere” in the world, he said, citing the lifting of taxes on rice or gas and support for imports.

One of the poorest countries in the world

Despite a soil full of diamonds, Sierra Leone is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The former British colony and its 7.5 million people were still recovering from a civil war and the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa when their economy was hit hard by the pandemic. of Covid-19 and now the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Sport

World Cup 2022: Qatar expelled foreign workers who demanded their wages, according to an NGO

World

Afghanistan: Taliban fire into the air in Kabul to disperse a women's demonstration

  • World

  • Sierra Leone

  • Demonstration

  • Police

  • Opposition

  • Disorders