The president of Sierra Leone declared that after a 24-hour curfew was eased to a dusk-to-dawn lockdown, the majority of the attackers of the country’s major military barracks and prisons had been apprehended and normalcy had returned throughout the nation.
The attacks, which caught residents and security personnel in the country off guard, occurred early on Sunday morning (November 26, 2023), and sparked concerns about a potential coup in a volatile area.
But “most of the leaders” of the attacks now have been arrested and “calm has been restored,” President Julius Maada Bio said in a Sunday night address.
Heavy gunfire woke up residents of Freetown, the nation’s capital, as attackers attempted to storm the main armory in the biggest military barracks in the area of the presidential villa.
They targeted major detention facilities, such as the central prison housing over 2,000 inmates, and engaged in continuous gunfire with security forces. According to authorities, they also freed or abducted an unspecified number of people.
Videos circulating on social media seemed to depict scores of prisoners flooding the streets in an attempt to flee quickly, coinciding with a gunfight between security personnel and the assailants outside the city.
As a result of the attacks, political unrest has increased throughout West and Central Africa, where there have been eight military takeovers since 2020, including ones in Niger and Gabon this year. Sierra Leone is a member of the West African regional economic bloc ECOWAS, which characterised the attacks as a plot “to acquire arms and disturb the peace and constitutional order” in the nation.
The attacks were “an attempt to undermine the peace and stability we have worked so hard to achieve,” said Bio, whose reelection in a disputed vote in June has raised political tensions in the country still healing from a 11-year civil war that ended more than two decades ago.
“Security operations and investigations are ongoing (and) we will ensure that those responsible are held accountable through due process,” Bio said.
The 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew will remain in effect until further notice, Information Minister Chernor Bah said.
“While we encourage citizens to return to their normal activities, we continue to urge everyone to remain calm but vigilant, and to report any suspicious or unusual activity to the nearest police station,” Bah said.
Ref: AP
