ABUJA, Nigeria
Attacks on Sierra Leone’s main military barracks and prisons were a failed coup attempt and have resulted in the arrest of 13 military officers, the government’s spokesman said Tuesday.
The attackers attempted to
“overthrow the elected government of Sierra Leone,” Information Minister
Chernor Bah said at a briefing to reporters about the early morning attacks that took security forces and
residents by surprise in the usually peaceful capital city of Freetown on
Sunday.
“Thirteen military officers
are currently in custody and one other civilian … in this incident we are now
calling a failed coup,” Bah said.
Coming months after Sierra
Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio was reelected for a second term in a disputed vote in
June, a coup attempt in the West African nation further raises political
tensions in West and Central Africa.
Coups have surged in the region, with eight military
takeovers since 2020, including in Niger and Gabon this year.
Residents in Freetown were
awoken by sounds of heavy gunfire Sunday as gunmen broke into the key armory in
the country’s largest military barracks, located near the presidential villa in
a heavily guarded part of the city.
The
attackers – in their dozens – also targeted two prisons in the city, including
the central prison where most of the more than 2,000 inmates were freed,
according to Col. Sulaiman Massaquoi, acting head of the Sierra Leone
Correctional Service.
A civilian was also arrested
in connection with the attack and more than 100 of the freed inmates have
reported back at the prisons amid a manhunt for fleeing suspects, the
information minister said.
Gunshots were heard in the
capital on Tuesday as security forces tried to arrest one of the fleeing
suspects. “The person of interest has been arrested and is now in custody of
the security forces,” the information ministry said in a statement.
Many of the attackers were
either hiding or still on the run across the country, the Chief of Defense
Staff Lt. Gen. Peter Lavahun told the briefing.
He said the armory had no
closed-circuit television (CCTV) but that officials were checking to confirm
the number of weapons seized. “We were able to recover two vehicles containing
arms and ammunition that were carted away,” said Lavahun.
Many in Freetown and across
the country remained indoors on Tuesday, more than a day after the government
relaxed a 24-hour curfew to a night lockdown.
There have been political
tensions in Sierra Leone since Bio’s reelection in a vote that the opposition
has said was rigged in his favor. Two months after he was reelected, police
said they arrested several people, including senior military officers planning
to use protests “to undermine peace.”
Neighboring Guinea remains
politically unstable after a coup in 2021. Sierra Leone itself is still healing
from a 11-year civil war that ended more than two decades ago. Its population
of 8 million people is among the poorest in the world.
West Africa’s regional
economic bloc of ECOWAS — of which Sierra Leone is a member —- condemned the
attacks and sent a delegation to “extend their support and solidarity” to the
country’s president.
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