By Mabinty M. Kamara
A report by the Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone (HRCSL) on the July 17th and 18th violence in Makene, northern Sierra Leone, has blamed it on communication gap between the Mayor of the city, Sunkari Kabba-Kamara and other stakeholders.
“Due to the Mayors impromptu illness, other stakeholders and the community people had no idea on action points taken as no key authority in the council engaged them. Furthermore, a feedback as promised by the mayor to the Ministry of energy was not made,” the report notes.
“Additionally, the Ministry of Energy in Freetown did not also make a follow up on the action points taken at the meeting of the 30th May and as a result, discussions on the relocations of the generator got stalled. Both institutions faulted in making a follow up,” it further notes.
The report titled the ‘Observation and Monitoring Report on the Human Rights Violations and Human Rights Abuses in Relation to the Incidents of 17th and 18th July 2020 In Makeni’, was presented to the media on Tuesday, August 18th. According to officials of the Commission, the investigation was done through media monitoring of the events, site visitations and engagement with the relevant stakeholders, including the Mayor of Makeni and the Local Unit Commander (LUC) of the city, amongst others.
He violence was caused by the decision of the Ministry of Energy to relocate a standby generator from Makeni to the Lungi International Airport. Angry youths barricaded the streets to prevent officials from the Energy Ministry from taking away the generator. The youths clashed with security forces in the process, leading to the loss of lives, allegedly resulting from gunshot wounds.
Amongst other things, the report notes that a total of six lives were lost in the incident and 8 others were injured, all of the victims civilians. Some 51 people were detained by police. On Tuesday reports indicate that some of them appeared in court in Freetown.
As a recommendation, the HRCSL called on the Sierra Leone government to better equip the police force with riot safety gears to enable them respond to violence in a way that will prevent loss of lives from both the personnel and the civilians. It also admonished the police to mind the way they incorporate the military in times of violent crisis.
“The police should cease co-opting the military at every given opportunity during protests, unless and until the circumstance truly demands military aid to civil power,” it reads.
The report also recommends for the government to take full responsibility of the medical bill of the injured people, and for the Independent Police Complaint Board (IPCB) to speedily investigate the discharge of fire arms which led to the death of the civilians.
The HRCSL report goes on to urge both central and local government to do more to open up the communication lines by frequently engaging each other, in order to effectively address emerging issues in their everyday works.
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