Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio said the coup attempt of 26 November was not a political, religious, or tribal matter.
Thirteen military personnel and one civilian were held as suspects in the claimed coup attempt.
President Bio says his government is treating last week’s coup attempt purely as a matter of law and order, as he attempts to rally his nation in defence of democracy.
The overthrow attempt would “be dealt with by my government purely as a law and order issue, not a political, tribal, or religious matter”, he said in a State of the Nation Address on Saturday night, while investigations were ongoing.
In his first address last week, the president said some of those involved in the attack on an army barracks, prison, and other selected places in the capital of Freetown had been arrested.
According to information made public by the Bio government, 21 people were killed in the coup attempt, including 14 soldiers and three attackers.
Thirty-one people, including one woman, are on the wanted list in relation to the coup attempt, and a curfew remains in place between 21:00 and 6:00.
In September, there were protests in Sierra Leone leading to dozens of arrests. This was just over a year after the August 2022 riots that claimed the lives of 20 civilians and six police officers, amid mounting frustrations over the soaring cost of living.
Going into the general elections and the period beyond, there was mass disgruntlement across the political divide.
To date, no one has been brought to justice over the August 2022 deaths.
Samira Daoud, director of Amnesty International’s West and Central Africa, office said the government had failed its people.
“The Sierra Leonean authorities have failed to live up to their promise to conduct a full, impartial, and transparent investigation and guarantee justice and truth to the families of victims,” she said.
According to Songhai Advisory, a bespoke business intelligence consultancy firm, Bio now in his second and last constitutional term, should fulfil his promises of electoral reforms if democracy was to be saved.
“Bio will have to appoint an independent entity to initiate a credible process for electoral reform as a condition for improving political stability and restoring development partner confidence,” it said.
“The governance agenda would be at risk in a scenario where there is no systemic change supported by stakeholders. But allowing for meaningful opposition and reversing some changes that weakened the democratic process would improve the political risk outlook.”
Source: Sierra Leone’s president promises to treat coup attempt as ‘law and order issue’ only | News24