News

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

Presiding Judge Advocate of the Court Martial presently trying 13 soldiers for alleged mutiny, has threatened to order for a subpoena to be served upon a certain Allieu Kargbo, a defense witness who failed to appear before the court in Freetown.

This has caused some delays in proceedings. The supposed witness, a mechanic at the Star Garage in Makeni, is expected to testify on behalf of the court’s first defense witness and accused person, Private Momoh Kargbo, who made an effort to exonerate himself on Monday.

By Mustapha Kamara Jnr

Head of Sierra Leone’s Ebola Response Center, NERC, Rtd Major Paolo Conteh, has admitted to challenges in payment of frontline health workers in the ongoing fight against Ebola. There continue to be strikes for entitlements.

By Mustapha Sesay

Indigenous workers of Bollore African Logistics (SL), the company that handles containers at Water Quay, Sierra Leone’s only sea port terminal, have laid down their tools claiming that 30% has been reduced from their annual rent allowance.

Speaking to journalists in Freetown, the company’s head of welfare for local workers, Alhaji Musa Conteh, said: “the reduction in annual rent allowances is the key reason we have refused to work today”, adding that they also had a lot of other challenges working for the company.

By Steven Bockarie Mansaray

Authorities in Koinadugu, north of the country, have restructured the two main groups tasked with eradicating the Ebola virus disease in that district.

The District Ebola Taskforce Committee (DETC) and the recently created District Ebola Response Center (DERC) have got new leadership.

Doctor (retired) Alhaji Fasineh Samura, who until now headed both bodies, has been confirmed the substantive head of the DERC. He was replaced by Sajor Bah at the taskforce level.

By Septimus Senessie

The civil society organisation Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD) has donated food and non-food items to 90 households of 30 quarantined homes in the Kono District, eastern Sierra Leone.

The distribution of food items, which include rice, cooking condiments, among others, comes after huge outcries from quarantined homes in the district with some people constantly complaining of not receiving timely food supply.

By Mustapha Sesay

Pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Sierra Leone has announced that they will donate medical equipment and bags of rice worth Le 40 million to the country’s National Ebola Response Centre.

The items, according to the General Overseer, Pastor Adewale Kalode Adesina, would be divided into three parts so as to serve their target groups. He said they would also cater for their congregation, quarantined homes in the provinces.

The French charity organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres says no Ebola cases have been admitted at the treatment centre in Kailahun since 11 December. In its latest report released yesterday, it warns however that “while Ebola is still present in other districts, the possibility will remain that travelers may present with Ebola in Kailahun”.