PRESISDENT KOROMA LEAVES FOR THE AFRICAN UNION (AU) SUMMIT IN ADDIS ABABA

The general public is hereby informed that His Excellency the President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma has left Freetown this morning to attend the 29th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union Summit scheduled to take place from 3rd July to 4th July, 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

His Excellency the President will effectively participate in deliberations on this year’s theme, “harnessing the demographic dividend through investments in youth”.

His Excellency the President will also update his colleagues Heads of State and Government, in his capacity as Chairperson of the Committee of Ten (C-10), on the reform of the United Nations in which Africa is demanding Two Permanent Seats in the Security Council of the United Nations with all the prerogatives and privileges.

The President will also address the Sierra Leonean community in Ethiopia on governance issues and the country’s preparedness for the general elections slated for March, 2018.

President Koroma and his entourage are expected back in Freetown on Wednesday, July 5th, 2017.

Fambul Tok And Catalyst For Peace Demands Investigation Into The Violence In Koinadugu And Moyamba Districts

In an open letter to His Excellency President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma, dated 23rd August, 2016, Fambul Tok International, a Non-Governmental Organization in Sierra Leone has called for an independent and inclusive panel of investigation into the violence in Koinadugu and Moyamba districts.
“While, we acknowledge the efforts being made by the police and the government, we advise that an independent panel to investigate the incidents in Koinadugu and Moyamba districts be set up to include reputable civilians within the districts who will add some confidence to the process” the letter stated. Please turn to the inside pages for more on the letter to the president.

23rd August 2016
His Excellency
Dr Ernest Bai Koroma
President of The Republic of Sierra Leone
State Avenue
Tower Hill
Freetown

Dear Mr President,
Open Letter to The President
Call for independent and inclusive panel of investigation into the violence in Koinadugu and Moyamba districts On Tuesday 16 August 2016, the people of Kabala township in the Koinadugu district, northern Sierra Leone, witnessed violence after youths clashed with the police, leaving two young people dead. Sadly, on Friday 19 August 2016, again youths in the Lower Banta chiefdom of Moyamba district, south of the country, allegedly burnt down houses in a violent protest that left two of them dead.
To this end we at Fambul Tok, a non-governmental organization working on peace, reconciliation and community development, are very concerned. While, we acknowledge the efforts being made by the police and the government, we advise that an independent panel to investigate the incidents in Koinadugu and Moyamba districts be set up to include reputable civilians within the districts who will add some confidence to the process.
We respectfully therefore urge for a speedy look into the issue and call for appropriate actions to follow. While we hope the law enforcement agencies will employ professionalism in handling of such protests, going forward, we also want to encourage youths not to take the law into their own hands but to always look for and use appropriate redress channels to register their grievances.
Mr. President, Fambul Tok is working in six districts including Koinadugu and Moyamba districts. In the last eight years, we have encouraged local leadership and ownership of community reconciliation leading to sustainable development, organized women’s groups as peace mothers and engaged with stakeholders from village and section chiefs to paramount chiefs and other relevant district authorities.

Since March 2015, Fambul Tok and Catalyst for Peace (CFP) have facilitated series of district meetings that have led to the establishment of an Inclusive District Peace and Development
Committees (IDPDC) in Kailahun, Koinadugu and Moyamba that comprise all peace and development stakeholders in the districts: local government, District Officers, traditional leaders, civil society groups including those representing women, youths and the physically challenged, non-governmental organizations, Sierra Leone Police, Office of National Security, MDAs and community representatives.
The IDPDC did not replace any existing structure but rather serves to complement and enhance an inclusive approach to problem solving and to facilitate a district-wide People’s Planning Process in conjunction with civil society, councils and traditional leaders that reflects the
needs and aspiration of people within each and every village, Section and Chiefdom in the said districts.
Therefore, we are very concerned that after years of building peace, promoting reconciliation through sustained traditional dialogue, community mediation and achieving social cohesion in the district, there are still instances of violence and deaths. We feel very worried that those gains could be reversed if violence and unrest continue to happen. However, again we want to emphasize that we condemn violence of any form, but we are also very confident that in collaboration with credible district stakeholders appropriate measures should be taken to
establish and address the root-cause of the violence and we hope that remedies will be taken afterwards to avert any reoccurrence.
Respectfully,
….………………………………..
John Caulker
Executive Director

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Death Sentence For Stray Dogs Over Rabies

The authorities in Pujehun District have ordered the killing of all stray dogs found roaming the streets. The order is in response to a dog bite incident that apparently killed a 7-year old girl.

Health officials are investigating the cause of her death, but already suspicion has fallen heavily on a possible rabies infection.

The incident in the Gbondapi community has sparked widespread concern because it followed reports of the hospitalisation of another victim of a dog bite in the same community.

A team from the district health management team, World Health Organisation and other stakeholders have been dispatched to the community to investigate the incident, according to Dr David Bome, the District Medical Officer in Pujehun. He said they were there to investigate how many people were actually affected and to collect specimen for investigations to ascertain the cause of death of the young girl.

An official of the Pujehun District Council said the order to kill was part of efforts to cleanse the district of dogs wandering the street with the potential to infect people with rabies. Councilor Anthony Fortune, chairman of the Health Committee at the Pujehun District Council, said residents would also henceforth be required to license their pet dogs so that proper record of the canine animal could be kept, and that in case there was such incident they could trace the owner.

Fortune told Politico that they had ordered youths in the entire district to kill any dog found on the streets. Six dogs, including the one suspected to have bitten the deceased girl, have already been killed in the Gbondapi community.
Gbondapi, located some 12 miles to the district headquarter town of Pujehun, is one of the oldest trade fair communities in Sierra Leone. Business people go there from as far as across the border with Liberia. This weekly trading, called ‘Lomaa’, takes place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

Traders and market goers often bring along their dogs to the trade fair and the animals find appealing food stuff like rotten fish. Because of this many of the dogs make Gbondapi their home, living off on the discarded food stuff.

Rabies is a preventable but incurable viral disease that affects mammals. It is most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal, like dogs. The virus infects the central nervous system and ultimately causes disease in the brain.

The symptoms include fever, headache, and general weakness or discomfort.

Sierra Leone is thought to have one of the highest concentrations of stray dogs in Africa and about 500 people die of rabies every year. There is an ongoing campaign to vaccinate all dogs as part of efforts to end rabies by the year 2030.

Officials in Pujehun say rabies cases are rarely reported.

Bome say this is the first time since he was deployed to the district in 2014 that they have recorded a rabies case.

Human beings can also be vaccinated against rabies, but Bome said the vaccines available in the whole district are only enough for no more than five people.

The DMO dismissed reports about the hospitalisation of a child under five years of age for a dog bite. But a source confirmed to Politico that a boy within that age had indeed been admitted at the Pujehun Maternity Hospital for a dog bit.

The district management team said it’s embarking on a sanitisation through outreach programmes and radio discussions on the issue of handling of dogs and other pets. One other measure being considered, according to Mr Fortune, is the introduction of by-laws which will enforce the requirement to license pet animals.

By Mohamed T Massaquoi

BREAKING NEWS: Youth in Koinadugu District Came Under Fire By Police. Umaru Fofana Report

This Demonstration Started because the youth felt betrayed by their president who had earlier on in December 2014 allegedly  promise the Villagers a Vocational Institution that will train and prepared them for entrepreneurship.

A Construction work that should have started in January last year is now been transfer to another district. this has cause the uproar of the youth

.

below is the report from Umaru Fofana 

 Young Anti-government demonstrators in the northern Koinadugu district say they've come under police fire. The district youth leader, Mohamed Marah says "police have just started firing teargas and live rounds at us". They are protesting against the government's decision to establish a skills-training Youth Village in another district which they say had been promised them in 2014. Police in the region are not responding to my calls. 

 The District Youth Chairman in Koinadugu, northern ‪#‎SierraLeone‬ says young men and women will embark on street protests today for the second time in a week. Mohamed Marah told me the move was "to demonstrate our frustration over the humiliating treatment by President [Ernest] Koroma and his APC party meted out to us over the promised construction of a Youth Village in the district which has now been moved to Tonkolili". He said the president had in December 2014 promised them the Village, a vocational institute to train the skills of young people and prepare them for entrepreneurship, with construction work to start in January 2015. "Now they've taken it to another district humiliating us as if we are less Sierra Leonean". The government is yet to comment, but sources say big hitters have been sent to the district. 
Photos are of a previous protest.

Impurity reigns in Sierra Leone: Allie Kabba sent back to prison

Sierra Leone tonight  is a simple, though chilling statement by supporters of opposition politician Alie Kabba: “Where there is no justice, there can be no hope”.

Alie Kabba has once again been denied bail and sent to the country’s notorious maximum security prison, after court received ‘orders from above’. He will next appear at the High Court, where he can present his evidence and plead his innocence.

Supporters of Kabba say that he is a political prisoner of conscience, whose freedom has been denied once more by a politically controlled court in Freetown, on a flimsy and orchestrated technicality regarding the terms of his bail.

Only in Sierra Leone are you likely to find the rather bizarre contradiction of having a member of parliament – IB Kargbo, who has committed serial crimes, by first failing to declare to the country’s electoral commission that he was still working as a public servant whilst contesting a by-election; and worse, using ministerial letter headed paper to write a letter soliciting an unlawful agreement with the Lebanese government, to import waste into Sierra Leone for cash.

Despite these serious crimes, IB Kargbo walks a free man, a parliamentarian and a presidential adviser. No one in the judiciary and the government is batting an eyelid, whilst Alie kabba is sent to maximum security prison today, for alleged bigamy involving a government minister – a charge the government is struggling to prove.

Why? IB Kargbo is a senior member of the ruling APC and a close confidante of the president; Alie Kabba is a candidate for the presidency in 2018, and he is seen as the most powerful critic of the government’s failed policies.