Part 2
By Bai Santigie Kanu
On August 10, 2022, Sierra Leone experienced one of its deadliest civil uprisings in recent history, with violence mainly concentrated in Freetown and the northern region, including Makeni and Kamakwie. The protest started as a peaceful demonstration against the rising cost of living, unemployment, and dissatisfaction with the government’s poor economic performance, but it escalated into confrontations between protesters and the police. Protesters blocked major roads, including Brima Lane junction, Portee junction, Calaba town, last Station, Up Gun, Congo Water, Wellington, and Shell Kissy, all in the east end part of Freetown, chanting “Maada mus go, we don taya, angry boku, woke nor dea” in the Krio local parlance, which means President Julius Maada Bio must leave the state house, Sierra Leoneans are tired of him, hunger is too much, no job for the masses. Protesters wielded weapons like sticks and stones while marching along the streets, obstructing vehicular traffic and pedestrians, and demanding that they go home or return to where they came from, as well as burning tires. In other areas, protesters vandalized police stations, resulting in the deaths of at least twenty-five (25) civilians and six (6) police officers. According to the government situation report, the government imposed a curfew and suspended internet access.
However, it is a frightening thought. It is incredibly cruel and inhumane for a government that is supposed to protect its citizens to kill them without a fair trial in a competent court of law. Certainly, it is true that since 2018, the government led by President Bio in Sierra Leone has systematically carried out organized killings, arbitrary arrests, unlawful imprisonment, torture, and unjust judicial processes. The country’s violent demonstrations on August 10, 2022, are no different. The nation was gripped with shock when striking images of brutality surfaced online, showing members of Sierra Leone’s security forces, including members of the presidential guard, shooting unarmed civilians, with people covered with blood. It was an onslaught. The streets of Freetown, Makeni, and Kamakwie were littered with images of dead bodies, as some parts of the country descended into chaos.
Recently, investigations have revealed that members of the security forces, including the presidential guard and former civil defense forces who fought alongside the Sierra Leone army during the war, have been recruited by the government to carry out both overt and covert killings of unarmed citizens during civil and economic protests in the country. During the violent protests from August 8 to 10, 2022, in Freetown and some parts of the north, this medium discovered that over one hundred (100) unarmed civilians and eight (8) police officers lost their lives. Eyewitness accounts shockingly revealed that the presidential guard and members of the military were responsible for the deaths of unarmed civilians, and the eight police officers who were under the direct command of the former deputy minister of internal affairs, Lahai Lawrence Leemah. The government of Sierra Leone’s brutal execution of protesters targeted members of the main opposition, the APC.
In the east end of Freetown, especially in the Congo Water and Wellington communities, a Freetown neighborhood, a perceived violent hot spot of the August 8-10, 2022, violent demonstration killings, it was revealed by eyewitnesses that members of the security forces, including the SLPP party gangs, executed civilians in broad daylight. This place was the alleged epic centre of summary executions carried out by the former deputy minister of internal affairs, Lahai Lawrence Leemah. Eyewitness accounts further revealed that Lahai Lawrence Leemah and members of the presidential guard got people from their houses and shot them dead, openly. Pictures and videos of some of the violent killings collected from friends and relatives of the victims of that incident showed horror. Further evidence revealed that these communities were targeted because of their perceived affiliation with the main opposition party, the All Peoples Congress. The majority of the arrested protesters were members of the main opposition, the APC, investigations revealed.
In their grief, the pen named Mr. and Mrs. Kamara at Black Hall Road revealed to this medium that their daughter, Ramatulai Kamara, a fourteen-year-old junior secondary school pupil, was shot dead by a stray bullet from an unknown direction. They explained that their daughter’s corpse was taken to the Canning Hospital central mortuary. Still, unfortunately, after so many weeks of back and forth with the government, their daughter’s corpse was seized by the government and buried undignified manner in an unmarked grave. These parents and many others suffered a similar fate; government security forces killed their relatives, the government seized the corpses and buried them in undignified, unmarked graves outside Freetown. These families are calling for justice for the lives of their relatives killed unjustifiably by the government of Sierra Leone.
The Sierra Leone police were heavily criticized for using live ammunition and heavy-handed crowd control tactics (Amnesty International, 2022; Human Rights Watch, 2022). However, authorities claimed that the actions of the police were necessary to restore order, while human rights groups and civil society organizations called for accountability and reform. The SLP, being under the direct command of the Vice President, consistently responds to the government’s directives, following orders from above. However, justice remains distant as families continue to mourn their loved ones after the government of Sierra Leone refuses to identify police and military officers accused of killing unarmed civilians in the April 29, 2020, prison massacre, the August 10, 20, violent protest, and the November 25th, 2023, attempted coup, respectively. Calling for justice is the order of the day in Sierra Leone and among Sierra Leonean communities in the diaspora. Justice must be served. Justice is needed for all the people killed in the August 8-10 economic protests without a fair trial in a competent court of law.
The destruction of lives and property reignited fears of national instability, drawing condemnation from the UN and ECOWAS (United Nations News, 2022). The violence tarnished Sierra Leone’s democratic image and jeopardized development goals in the Medium-Term National Development Plan (2019–2023). The destruction was excessive. Police stations were set ablaze, and property belonging to the government was damaged in Freetown, Makeni, and Kamakwie. The sophisticated nature of the security response to the protest was alarming. An insider account revealed that the operation was premeditated. The Vice President, through the former deputy minister of internal affairs and the inspector general of police, gave commands to the police and the army to shoot and kill protesters on sight.
Conclusion
The August 8-10 protests massacre reveals persistent fault lines in Sierra Leone’s governance, justice, and security sectors. These incidents underscore the urgent need for national dialogue, law enforcement reform, human rights protection, and democratic consolidation. If left unaddressed, these crises threaten not only domestic peace but also Sierra Leone’s standing on the global stage. Therefore, this medium calls on the international community, especially the International Criminal Court, to investigate the government of Sierra Leone for crimes against humanity. Eyewitness accounts are more revealing than the skewed report of the special investigation committee established by the government of Sierra Leone. The special investigation committee’s doctored report tells a significant untold story of the government of Sierra Leone’s human rights abuses and the killing of innocent citizens without a fair trial in a competent court of law since 2018. Therefore, this medium urges the public to demonstrate and demand justice and accountability for the inmates killed, and it calls on the International Criminal Court and public interest lawyers in the country to institute investigation into these killings and indict the President, his vice, and all those involved.
