By Sallieu S. Kanu
The Government of Sierra Leone on Monday, October 17, 2022 buried 27 civilians killed during the August 10 protests in Freetown, Makeni and Kamakwe, denying their families the right to bury their loved ones.
The exercise was conducted amidst heavy presence of security personnel at Bolima in Makeni.
The Government said in statement on Friday that “after several meetings with family members, an agreement has been reached for a state-led burial on 17th October 2022 at Bolima, Waterloo, in full collaboration with family members”.
The Government had offered Le (old) 20, 000,000 to each of the affected families in compensation.
The offer was rejected by families of one victim, Hassan Dumbuya, aka Evangelist Samson who was killed by security forces on August 11, 2022 in the northern city of Makeni.
Evangelist Samson was an ardent critic of the Bio Administration. His video and audio recordings are popular among supporters and sympathizers of the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) party.
“Immediately following the state burial of the six police officers who were brutally murdered by insurrectionists, government has been engaging with family members of civilians who lost their lives during and in the aftermath of the insurrection. In the process, many unidentified corpses have been identified by their relatives and post-mortem examinations conducted in their presence, but some remain unverified,” the Government said in its statement on Friday.
“Following specific instructions from His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio that all corpses be given a dignified burial, each corpse will be buried in separate graves following a dignified ceremony.”
Furthermore, as tradition demands and as a show of compassion, government has given each family 20,000 New Leones (20,000,000 Old Leones) to help bereaved families with funeral rites, according to the statement.