News

By Umaru Fofana

The Government of Sierra Leone has placed an indefinite ban on all overseas travels by ministers, deputy ministers and members of state departments and agencies.

According to a memo sent to all concerned, with immediate effect and until further notice, they should “not embark on official overseas trips except for STATUTORY ENGAGEMENTS”.

Even those statutory engagement travels such as to the African Union or the United Nations, must be cleared by the president.

By Mabinty M. Kamara

The Meteorological Agency of Sierra Leone (MASL) has warned of more heavy rains in the next two months as the country braces up for one of the highest rain falls in many years.

MASL officials say so far the highest monthly rain fall recorded is 800 mm in July in Kenema, compared to 695.4 mm last year in Both.

Gabriel Kpaka, Deputy Director General at SLMA, told Politico that heavy downpours are expected in late August and September. 

By Hajaratu Kalokoh

The last set of a total of 900 hundred Muslim pilgrims expected to leave Sierra Leone for Saudi Arabia on Monday morning eventually left a  little latter than scheduled.

The pilgrimage which is known as “Hajj” is part of a compulsory rite for Muslims, where they will visit Mecca, Medina and Mina to perform rituals, all in the next three weeks.

The Sierra Leonean pilgrims will join millions of other Muslims from all over the world to perform these rites.

By Mabinty M. Kamara

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) says several properties with ties to former government officials have been sealed off pending investigations.

The properties which have been barricaded by the police on the orders of the anti-graft agency are said to been connected to ongoing investigations of unexplained wealth or proceeds of corruption.  

At least two of the buildings have been claimed by individuals who served in the administration of former President Ernest Bai Koroma, according to the Commission.

By Hajaratu Kalokoh

The United Nation Women has held a dialogue session with different media practitioners to create a closer partnership in advancing the GoSL’s development priorities in line with the frame work of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in Sierra Leone.

The thrust of the dialogue was centered around a way of creating mutual effective relationship between the media and the UN body in enhancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in Sierra Leone to achieving the SDGs goal.

By Prince J Musa in Kenema

As a way of supporting the correctional system of capacitating inmates with skills, Humanist Watch, a rights based group, has donated tailoring equipment and accessories to the Kenema Correctional center. Both the male and female wings of the center benefitted from the largess worth Le60million. The donation, said officials, was made possible with funds from the United Nations Development program (UNDP), under its Justice Sector Support project.

By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay

The Commonwealth ICT Forum has ended in Freetown paving the way for Sierra Leone to draw up its own policy on Broadband. The three days international conference brought together industry experts from home and abroad to talk on challenges, lessons and solutions for modern-day internet usage.