News

By Crispina Taylor

Sierra Leone`s pension fund, the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) on Tuesday came under heavy criticism for its investments which lawmakers say are hardly targeted at the masses.

NASSIT was criticized for engaging in projects that appear to benefit the few rich folks in society, like its expensive housing schemes and the controversial mall projects ongoing on the provincial headquarters towns.

By Crispina Taylor

The Sierra Leone army last week inaugurated a ‘Rapidly Deployable Treatment Center’ (RDTC) donated by the British government.

The facility will allow the medical unit of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) to respond rapidly in case of an outbreak of any infectious disease and provide treatment.

The British army, which is completing its mission to the country as part of the fight against the Ebola epidemic which erupted in 2014, facilitated the donation to the government of Sierra Leone.

By Kemo Cham

The United Kingdom has announced a new High Commissioner to Sierra Leone. He is Guy Warrington who was named on Monday to replace Peter West.

A brief statement from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London published 19 October 2015, said West will be transferred to another diplomatic service appointment. Mr Warrington, it adds, takes up his appointment in Freetown in March 2016.

High Commissioner West took up his appoint in Sierra Leone in 2013 following his appointment the previous year.

By Joseph L. Kamara

There are fears that Serra Leone’s National Electoral Commission (NEC) will be redundant if a draft bill on civil registration is sent to parliament.

“THE NATIONAL CIVIL REGISTRATION ACT, 2015” proposes, among other things, a centralized registration body. But opposition political parties, the NEC, and civil society organizations are worried that voter registration, which will now be done by an “autonomous” body once the bill is enacted, will not be credible.

By Kemo Cham

A preliminary study has found that fragments of the Ebola virus persist in the semen of some male survivors for far longer than the three months initially thought.

The study whose report was released this week found that particles of the virus can stay in the semen for at least nine months, suggesting the possibility it could stay for longer.

Initially, it was thought that the virus particles only last for six months.

By Kemo Cham

China is once again using its ‘long history of bilateral cooperation’ with Sierra Leone to seek for support in its bid for a seat on the governing body of the International Criminal Police Organisation, better known as Interpol.

This was the subject of discussion when a Chinese diplomat visited the chief of Sierra Leone`s police, Inspector General Francis Alieu Munu, this week.

By Kemo Cham

A team of laboratory experts from the US-based Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) was on a week-long tour of Sierra Leone last week.

The team headed by the Executive Director of APHL was to explore priority areas of assistance within the country`s Post Ebola Recovery plan to help strengthen the health ministry`s priority programme.

APHL, based out of Maryland, USA, has been in Sierra Leone since 2009 helping out in the area of laboratories services.