News

By Mohamed T Massaquoi

Pressured by the effect of the closure of the Mano River border, which has almost entirely strangled local cross-border business activities, residents of Sorogbeima chiefdom in the Pujehun District have called on the Sierra Leone government to negotiate with its Liberian counterpart for the reopening of the border.

It was shutdown over concerns of transmission of the Ebola virus disease, which started in Guinea and spilled over to Liberia before finally reaching Sierra Leone through Kailahun in the east.

By Allieu Sahid Tunkara

Prosecution at the military tribunal presently trying 13 soldiers of the Sierra Leone Army has questioned the competence of a defense witness to testify before the court as a provost commander, arguing that a particular entry in the Daily Occurrence Book was not made by him.

By Joseph Lamin Kamara

Executive Director of the Institute for Governance Reform, a local research institute based in Freetown, says “government will be unreasonable to push to have a census amidst the Ebola outbreak in the country.”

Andrew Lavalie told Politico yesterday at his office in Freetown that the current Ebola outbreak in the country would not create conducive environment “for a credible census.”

By Septimus Senessie in Kono

The International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) has commissioned and started admitting Ebola patients into its just completed 48-bed capacity Ebola Treatment Centre at Dorma Town in the Gbense chiefdom, Kono District.

Nine patients have been admitted into the center after their blood samples were tested at theKenema District Ebola Laboratory.

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.