News

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

Director of Economic Statistics at Statistics Sierra Leone has said that it will be very difficult for the country to attain its much desired middle level income status by 2035.

Abu Bakarr Turay said: “the Ebola outbreak has tremendously slowed down the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate, the immediate halt in road construction and the swift departure of foreign investors are all evidential instances.”

By Mustapha Kamara

The Chief Executive of Save the Children UK says two million children are at risk of contracting the deadly Ebola virus that has killed thousands of people in West Africa since March.

Speaking at a presser in Freetown, Justin Forsyth said over 2,000 children in Sierra Leone had either lost one or both parents to the deadly disease, or were affected by it in some other ways.

Timis Corporation Limited, a company established and wholly owned by African Minerals Limited’s Executive Chairman, Frank Timis, has acquired the Sierra Leone mining assets of London Mining Company (LMC) from the administrator PwC.

By Crispina Cummings

Five journalists appointed by President Ernest Bai Koroma to serve as commissioners on the board of the Independent Media Commission were interviewed by the Committee on Appointments in parliament on Monday.

University Lecturer, Williette James – nominated to become Chairperson of the commission – described herself as “a bold, resilient and strong woman” assuring that she had “what it takes to effectively run the IMC.”

Britain is building and staffing three new laboratories in Ebola-struck Sierra Leone which will speed up the time taken to diagnose the disease and help to stop its spread across the country.

The Department for International Development (DFID) has pledged £20 million in new funding for the labs, where blood samples and swabs from all over the country will be tested for the deadly virus.

The first of the labs opened beside the UK funded Ebola treatment centre at Kerry Town last week.

By Crispina Cummings

Parliament in Sierra Leone has moved a motion to set up a committee that will monitor funds meant to contain the Ebola virus in the country.

Majority leader, Ibrahim Bundu, said it was necessary for a special committee to be established “to monitor implementing partners and public officials who have responsibilities in the fight against Ebola.”

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

CEO of the body coordinating the fight against Ebola has said Sierra Leone needs more help to tackle the spread of the disease that has claimed more than 1,000 lives since May this year.

Rtd Major Paolo Conteh said that the National Ebola Response Centre, NERC, needed “more support and we need it quickly if we are to bring down the rate of infection and get ahead of the disease.”