News

By Mustapha Kamara

The head of the National Ebola Response Centre (NERC) has dismissed claims by the All Political Parties Association (APPA) that rice distributed by the UN World Food Programme to the country’s Ebola affected victims was “rotten, expired and not fit for human consumption”.

Rtd. Major Palo Conteh told journalists that an independent investigation was set up as soon as they received complaints about the rice from the APPA.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Sierra Leone says the three constituent colleges of the university will use radio, television and other forms of media to interact with students who are out of campus because of the Ebola outbreak.

Professor Ekundayo Thompson told a news conference in Freetown at Fourah Bay College on Wednesday that he "did not want the university to start the academic year from a deficit position when situation gets back to normal", adding that all students of the university would benefit from the project.

By Crispina Cummings

An opposition Member of Parliament has criticised the 2015 budget which was read last week by the country’s finance minister, Dr Kelfala Marah.

Contributing to a debate on the document, Komba Koydeyoma of Constituency 027 in Kono District, described the budget as “good for reading purposes but not too good for implementation”.

By Mustapha Kamara

The Centre for the Coordination of Youths Activities, CCYA, with funds from UNESCO and the National Youth Commission, yesterday held a day’s engagement with various broadcast journalists on how to report the current Ebola crisis in Sierra Leone.

The training, which took place in Freetown, was also geared towards developing programmes that would aid the education of locals in various communities across the country about the disease.

As Ebola keeps having and toll on Sierra Leone more and more health workers continue to be at the receiving end. The latest is Dr Michael Kargbo, a dermatologist who worked at the Magburaka Government Hospital.

He died yesterday at the Hastings treatment centre outside Freetown, four days after he had been admitted.

The death of the 64-year-old comes just a day after Dr Martin Salia died in a Nebraska Hospital after he had been flown to the United States for treatment.

Rights campaigner, Ibrahim Tommy has questioned the arrest of an opposition presidential aspirant under the Ebola emergency provisions.

It followed the arrest in Makeni on Tuesday of Alpha Timbo of the main opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) who was charged with “Holding a public meeting without authority”. Police had alleged that Timbo held a meeting with around 50 other people at 5 Mabanta Road.

For the fourth time in as many months heavily-armed robbers have attacked the residence of a senior official of Fourah Bay College at Kortright.

According to the latest victim, the senior finance officer Jacob Tucker, "in the early hours of Monday 17th November, about five men, armed with machetes, knives and a gun, burst into my house after cutting through the metal bars in kitchen window."

He said they quickly overpowered him and his children and stole his plasma TV, a generator, several mobile phones and cash.