Feature

By Kemo Cham

This week Rwanda is hosting the African Union heads of state summit. Among the items on the agenda at the 27 AU Summit is the much talked about dream of full integration. A key event is the launch of the AU’s e-passport [electronic passport]. This initiative falls under the AU’s Agenda 2063, which specifically aims at facilitating free movement of persons, goods and services within the continent, with the overall goal of fostering intra-Africa trade, integration and socio-economic development.

By Kemo Cham

Late last month history was made in Liberia when local security forces assumed control of the country’s security for the first time in 13 years.

President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf presided over a symbolic ceremony in Monrovia on July 1 marking the formal transfer of security control by UN peacekeepers. The tour of duty of the peacekeepers, under the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), had ended a day before on Thursday June 30.

By Hassan Morlai Koroma

The kidnapping of diplomats for political or financial gain is not a new phenomenon. Assertions such as “we will do everything it takes to secure the safe release of …” or “we will not pay any ransom to kidnappers”, etc. soon give way to the reality that if the diplomat is indeed to be freed, some form of deal has to be struck. Such deals are hardly presented to the public as official ransom.

Mrs. Juliana Konteh is a Sierra Leonean philanthropist. She is into education and her targets are a forgotten segment of our society – women and girls.

Juliana, through her Women in Crisis Vocational Institute which is located in Wellington in the east end of Freetown, has helped reintegrate many women and girls who suffered one way or the other from the eleven years (1991-2002) of civil war in Sierra Leone. In this edition of The Interview, Mabinty M. Kamara sat with Juliana who is also the director of the institute.

By Ezekiel Nabieu 

SUBMITTED BY SLPP TECHNICAL COMMITTEE ON 2015 CENSUS

Background:

Following the release of the provisional 2015 census report published by Statistics Sierra Leone (SSL) on March 31, 2016, the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) convened a stakeholders’ meeting on Tuesday 6th April, 2016 at the Head office, Lightfoot Boston Street in Freetown and constituted a Technical Committee to examine the report. The following members were appointed to serve in the Committee.

The Bank of Sierra Leone recently re-launched its campaign to control the ever rising influence of the United States Dollar on the Sierra Leonean economy. The move, according to the bank, is aimed at saving the Leone which is the legal tender of the country.

Bank officials say the uncontrolled use of the Dollar has contributed to the inflation of the leone. They also say this has made life difficult for the ordinary Sierra Leonean as tenants, restaurant owners and airlines, among others, demand payment in the Dollar rather than the Leone.