Sierra Leone

FREETOWN, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Gunfire could be heard in some neighbourhoods of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown on Sunday afternoon following an attempt by unidentified gunmen to break into a military armoury.

The government declared a nationwide curfew after assailants attacked the armoury at the Wilberforce barracks in the early hours of Sunday. The assailants were rebuffed by the country's security forces, it said in a statement.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has won a second term in office, receiving 56.17% of ballots cast and narrowly clearing the threshold for avoiding a runoff in the West African nation, electoral officials said Tuesday.

Main opposition candidate Samura Kamara immediately disputed the results showing he had received 41.16% of the vote in Saturday’s election.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Voters in Sierra Leone were deciding Saturday whether to give President Julius Maada Bio a second term amid high unemployment and growing concern about the state of the West African nation’s economy.

A dozen candidates hoped to unseat Bio, though experts predicted his main competition likely would be Samura Kamara, the head of the All People’s Congress Party.

FREETOWN, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Matthew Banya, a regional commander of the operations support division, the paramilitary wing of the Sierra Leone Police Force, was killed by an unknown assailant in northern Sierra Leone's Makeni city late Saturday, leading to panic among local citizens, local police confirmed Sunday.

The confirmation was from Sahr Yonba Senesie, the northeast regional police commander and assistant inspector of the police, whose portfolio includes maintaining law and order in the city of Makeni.

FREETOWN, Nov 6 (Reuters) - At least 99 people were killed and more than 100 injured in the capital of Sierra Leone late on Friday when a fuel tanker exploded following a collision, local authorities said.

Emergency crews worked to clear the scene on Saturday in Freetown's eastern suburb of Wellington where a burnt body and the blackened shells of cars and motorbikes blocked the road following the crash, a Reuters reporter said.

The wounded were treated in hospitals and clinics across the capital, deputy health minister Amara Jambai told Reuters.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — An oil tanker exploded near Sierra Leone’s capital, killing at least 92 people and severely injuring dozens of others after large crowds gathered to collect leaking fuel, officials and witnesses said Saturday.

The explosion took place late Friday after a bus struck the tanker in Wellington, a suburb just to the east of Freetown.

08 Feb 2019; DW: Sierra Leone's President Julius Maada Bio declared rape and sexual violence a national emergency on Thursday, calling for an end to the culture of "indifference" and impunity surrounding it.

His announcement follows a national outcry over the prevalence of sexual violence in the West African nation, where recorded cases of sexual and gender-based violence doubled last year, reaching 8,505 in a population of 7.5 million, according to police statistics.