Anti-government protesters have clashed with police within the capital town of Sierra Leone over the emerging price of dwelling.
Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh showed that there were fatalities within the clashes in Freetown.
Six law enforcement officials and no less than 21 civilians were killed, in keeping with police and different Reuters resources.
In a countrywide broadcast, Jalloh additionally introduced a national curfew from 15:00 on Wednesday in a bid to stem the violence.
“These unscrupulous individuals have embarked on a violent and an unauthorised protest, which has led to the loss of lives of innocent Sierra Leoneans including security personnel,” Jalloh stated, including that some public structures together with police stations were attacked and burned down.
Protesters have known as for the departure of Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio, who used to be elected in 2018 and nonetheless has 10 months left in his time period. Demonstrators chanted “Bio must go” as they made their manner during the streets of Freetown.
The price of dwelling in Sierra Leone has risen by way of greater than 40% inside the previous couple of months, whilst electrical energy and gas costs even have spiked.
The authorities has criticised the unidentified organisers of the protest, caution that the rustic already has suffered sufficient after greater than a decade of civil warfare that resulted in 2002.
“Sierra Leone has gone through a lot so let us change the trajectory and not allow people to divide us,” Abdul Karim Will, spokesman for the Office of National Security, informed the nationwide radio broadcaster previous within the day.
