Thirteen military officers have been arrested in connection with a failed coup attempt in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, over the weekend. According to Information Minister Chernor Bah, the incident was an attempted coup to overthrow the democratically elected government. The inspector general of police confirmed that the coup attempt failed, and a group of people tried to illegally unseat the government with force.
At least 20 people were killed in the attacks and about 2,200 people escaped from the prisons that were attacked. President Julius Maada Bio assured the public that most of the leaders of the attack had been arrested and that the government would continue to pursue the rest. Tensions remain in Freetown, with checkpoints, closed schools and banks, and a dusk-to-dawn curfew in place.
The unrest in Sierra Leone has been building since a contested election in June, with President Bio winning reelection amid concerns about the transparency of the election from European Union observers and United States officials. The opposition All People’s Congress (APC) rejected the results and claimed that the election was not credible. The country has also been affected by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with police opening fire on demonstrators protesting high food prices last August.