News

By Aminata Phidelia Allie

A magistrates’ court in Freetown has convicted and sentenced a 38-year-old woman to 12 months in prison or she pays a fine of Le 500,000 to the court’s treasury for obstructing the work of Ebola response teams.

Musu Esther Massaquoi, a resident of New England Ville in Western Freetown, was making a second appearance before Magistrate Seray-Wurie of Court No. 2 at Pademba Road, when she was convicted and sentenced.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

Communications Manager at the National Commission for Democracy has said that they will translate relevant portions of Sierra Leone’s 1991 constitution into five local languages to ensure active participation of citizens in the review process.

In an interview with Politico, Gibrilla Kargbo, disclosed that they developed the translation initiative to empower the local people to actively participate in the on-going constitutional review process in the country.

Police say the arrest of journalist, David Tam-Baryoh of the Monologue radio programme fame was ordered by President Ernest Bai Koroma under the country’s emergency regulations currently in force.

Director of the police criminal investigations department, Chief Superintendent Ibrahim Koroma told Politico that Tam-Baryoh’s arrest followed “an Executive Order signed by His Excellency the president.”

He said the detention of the journalist was “indefinite until it pleases His Excellency” to grant his release.

Dr Godfrey George on Monday 3 November became the fifth Sierra Leonean doctor to die from Ebola.

Chief Medical Officer, Dr Brima Kargbo said the medical superintendent at the Kambia public hospital died at the Hastings Treatment Centre where he was admitted to over the weekend after he tested positive for the disease.

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.