News

The Committee of Chiefs of Defence Staff of ECOWAS Member States has endorsed the report and outcome of the Technical Assessment Mission to Mali and called for international support for the planned deployment of an ECOWAS Mission in Mali (MICEMA) to help restore the country’s national integrity and return constitutional order.

According to release from ECOWAS, the Committee also fixed 9^th August 2012 for a final planning conference in Mali in preparation for the deployment of the 3,000-strong troops.

The wife of the President of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, Mrs. Kadre Desire Ouedraogo, has called for synergy, complementarity, strong partnership and collaboration between the African First Ladies Peace Mission and the Commission for the promotion of continental peace and development, according to a press release from ECOWAS.

Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana has denied allegations against him contained in a stinging letter from a former associate.

At his first ever press conference since becoming vice president nearly five years ago, Sam-Sumana denied allegations made by American businessman Mark Heiligman. In an open letter circulated last week and distributed at the VP's press conference early this week, Heiligman accuses the vice president of being a “thief” whom he says has “stolen” from Sierra Leoneans and from his current and former business partners.

The Dakar-based West Africa Democracy Radio project is fraught with teething problems that have forced over a dozen staff to resign in the last three months three of them in July alone. The station, set up in 2005, is currently off air and staff have not been paid for two months and some of them have had their homes in Dakar disconnected from the national electricity grid. Correspondents have been asked to stop sending in reports because the station is fraught with problems.

The manager for national disease surveillance and response, Dr Foday Dadae has put at 4,249 the nationwide number of recorded cases of cholera since the latest outbreak started in January with 72 deaths. He said 685 of that figure was recorded in the Western Area where 14 people, including two children, had been confirmed dead in the last five weeks. Forty cases are being reported daily at Mabayla alone, in the east of Freetown.

Member of Parliament for Constituency 91 in Soro-Gbeima chiefdom, Pujehun district, says his people are unhappy with the operations of a mining company called Strategic Business Development which is undertaking exploration work in the Soro-Gbeima chiefdom.