Published on 13/12/2023
Former Sierra Leonean president Ernest Bai Koroma is now under house supervision, a move characterized by the opposition as house arrest following recent violence.
Koroma faced police questioning in Freetown for the third time on Monday (Dec. 11) regarding the events of November 26, labeled by authorities as an attempted coup d’état.
On Saturday, the government officially announced that Mr. Koroma, who served as Sierra Leone’s president from 2007 to 2018, was under a form of house arrest. This information was contested by one of his legal representatives.
Sierra Leone’s Minister of Information had previously stated that the former president had been released “on condition that he remains within the confines of his property in Freetown and receives a limited number of guests.”
On Monday, a substantial police presence was deployed around Koroma’s residence. The Sierra Leonean authorities suspect that some of Mr. Koroma’s former guards may have been involved in the unrest on November 26.
During the early hours of that day, assailants targeted a military armory, two barracks, two prisons, and two police stations. The clashes resulted in 21 casualties, including 18 members of the security services and three attackers, according to the Minister of Information.
