By: Hafsatu Bangura
On Wednesday, 10th August 2022, protests erupted in the capital Freetown and other towns in Sierra Leone, condemning the rising cost of living, corruption and governance issues. The events quickly escalated and turned violent, leading to the death of several protesters and police officers.
As a reaction, the government deployed the army in support of the police and announced a nationwide curfew, which was lifted on 13 August. A day later, a high-profile figure of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC), Evangelist Samson, was killed by security forces in the aftermath of investigations into the protests of 10th August 2022.
Other prominent members and supporters of the APC like Juliet Koroma, who is a former zone leader for the Malamah Zone in Constituency 132, Western Urban Area, David Lahai Kargbo, the Organising Secretary in Constituency 127, Western Area, Isatu Bangura, the Campaign Chairlady in the Western Rural District and other stakeholders of the main opposition party in Sierra Leone faced unlawful treatments from the police.
The situation was so worrisome for most top APC politicians who were involved in the peaceful protests as the police were all over the place in Makeni and Kamakwe, trying to arrest members of the main opposition APC. It was also discovered that the police further embarked on some secret killings of proponents of the APC party across the country such as Evangelist Samson and few others whose deaths remained unclear to the public since the government is yet to set up any investigation about their loss over three years ago.
After a calm day on Thursday, protesters demonstrated again on Friday in Freetown, the capital city, expressing their frustrations about the secret killings of opposition political figures for any justifiable reason, with police firing live ammunition at the crowds, according to videos shared on social media in which the extent of injuries was unclear. A man who witnessed the events in Freetown told A-Z Newspaper how he discovered the body of his sister: “The police started to shoot randomly into the crowd. I was standing, I ran down to my house around 10:00am. My younger sister who lives with the one who died came running and told me our sister had been killed. The first shot was in the left arm.
The second one is close to her collar bone. She was bleeding a lot from the neck. There was blood everywhere.” He explained noting that his sister was not part of the protest and was in her house when she was shot.
This writer also collected the testimony of the father of a 22-year-old woman who was not participating in the protest and yet was allegedly shot by security forces. He recalled: “my daughter was not part of the protest. She went to sell vegetable leaves.” A member of staff from a hospital in Makeni witnessed on 10 and 11 August a total of 11 people were severely injured including two men who had gunshot wounds from the back, a 16-year-old girl who was shot in the pelvic area and a man with a gunshot wound near his left eye.
A protester in Makeni told Amnesty International about the violence he experienced and what he witnessed on the day of the demonstrations. “I was arrested by (military) and handed over to the police. They used the butts of their guns, belts and protective helmets and started hitting me all over my body ….”
On the day of the protests, from 3:00pm, the authorities imposed a nationwide curfew. A young man from Makeni, Alusine Conteh, updated this medium that he was unaware of the curfew and was shot at by police while spending time with his friends: “We were just sitting around discussing as friends. It was not too long before a patrol team from the police came. They were shouting. They did not say anything to us. We started running away, and I was eventually shot in my right arm,” he intimated.
According to the Inspector General of Police, arrests have been made over the killing of a police officer in Freetown and another officer in Makeni and in relation to cases of arson in Kamakwie. However, no official police investigation has been launched into the killings of protesters and bystanders.
With that, Amnesty International called on the Sierra Leonean authorities and the Special Committee to carry out an independent, impartial and thorough investigation not only into the killings of police officers but also into the use of force by law enforcement, during and after the protests, that resulted in injury and death, and to ensure those responsible for unlawful killing, torture and other forms of ill-treatment face justice. Crucially, the findings of the Special Committee investigation must be made public for all to see.
