Another coup bid

 Sierra Leone was in recovery mode for much of last week following a bid by gun-wielding assailants to overthrow the country’s democracy. No fewer than 20 people got killed when the gunmen, early in the week, attacked military installations, including an armoury in Freetown, in an apparent bid to seize weapons with which to unseat the government of President Julius Maada Bio. The assailants also  barnstormed prison facilities, releasing more than 2,000 inmates.

Armed clashes flared in the Sierra Leonean capital penultimate Sunday as government security forces repelled those described as “renegade soldiers” who attempted to break into the armoury in Freetown during the early hours. Reports cited witnesses who said they heard gunshots and explosions in the Wilberforce district where the armoury is located. Other witnesses spoke of exchanges of gunfire near a barracks in Murray Town district, home to the navy, and outside other security formations including a police station in the capital. Sierra Leone’s Information Minister Chernor Bah was reported saying major detention centres including the Pademba Road prisons were broken into and inmates set free by the assailants. A nationwide round-the-clock curfew was imposed on the heels of the attacks as government forces hunted down the renegades.

President Bio confirmed the attacks, but gave assurance that his government had a handle on the situation. In a post on his official X handle, he said: “In the early hours of this (Sunday) morning, there was a breach of security at the military barracks at Wilberforce in Freetown, as some unidentified individuals attacked the military armoury. However, they were repelled by our gallant security forces and calm has been restored. As the combined team of our security forces continue to route (sic) out  the remnant of the fleeing renegades, a nationwide curfew has been declared and citizens are encouraged to stay indoors.” He urged all Sierra Leoneans to unite to protect democracy in the West African country.

Following the nationwide curfew, flights were disrupted at the Freetown International Airport and the country’s civil aviation authority advised airlines to reschedule. The authority, in a statement, said passengers should be placed on the next available flights after the curfew gets lifted, adding though that the Sierra Leonean airspace remained open. Agency reports, however, cited military personnel on Sierra Leone’s frontier with neighbouring Guinea – a country under military rule – saying they had been instructed to shut the border.

In the days following the Sunday uprising, government confirmed the insurrection to be a coup attempt over which no fewer than 13 military officers and one civilian had been arrested. “The incident was a failed attempted coup. The intention was to illegally subvert and overthrow a democratically elected government,” Information Minister Bah said Tuesday, adding: “The attempt failed, and plenty of the leaders are either in police custody or on the run. We will try to capture them and bring them to the full force of the laws of Sierra Leone.” Police chief William Fayia Sellu corroborated him, saying “a group of people” tried to illegally unseat the government. He told journalists in Freetown that the police had published photographs of 32 men and two women being sought in connection with the unrest, among them serving and retired soldiers and police officers as well as civilians. Government also confirmed that those killed in the uprising include 13 soldiers, three of the assailants, a police officer, a civilian and someone working in private security. Eight others were seriously injured. 

“Soldiers everywhere must get the message that there is no sufficient condition to warrant forceful dislocation of a constitutional order.”

Although normalcy was largely restored to Freetown as from Monday, shots were heard on Tuesday in the neighbourhood of Murray Town barracks, with the police saying this was part of an operation to apprehend fleeing perpetrators of Sunday’s attacks. No-one was hurt in the incident and a “person of interest” was arrested and taken into custody, a government statement said. The Sierra Leonean police also launched a manhunt to recapture dozens of fleeing inmates set free by the renegades, with the presence of the security operatives creating panic as they sought inmates who were “believed to be hunkering down around the slums,” according to agency reports. A police statement disclosed that some escaped inmates turned themselves in, while cash rewards were offered for information leading to arrest of yet fleeing assailants and prison escapees. Meanwhile, the 24-hour curfew imposed on the heels of the Sunday attacks was relaxed to nine hours: 9:00p.m. to 6:00a.m. local time until further notice. The civil aviation authority said airport operations would be conducted “within the parameters of the revised curfew time.”

By beating back the rebellion, Sierra Leone avoided falling in league with some other West African countries where the military seized power in recent history: these include neighbouring Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger Republic. The Sunday coup bid marked the sixth experience in the sub-region since 2020, and the ninth in the West and Central Africa belt within same period. Unlike Sierra Leone, countries affected were not lucky to contain the military adventurers. The last coup occurred in Gabon where soldiers, late in August, booted out President Ali Bongo Ondimba few days after a presidential poll he was declared to have won by nearly a landslide. In July, the Nigerièn military seized power from elected President Mohamed Bazoum, and have dug in despite threats of being forced out by the sub-regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). The Niger coupists had soulmates in Mali and Burkina Faso – countries with which Niger shares borders. Soldiers in Burkina Faso shot their way into power in January 2022 to displace President Roch Marc Kaboré, who came into office in 2015 and was re-elected to another five-year term in 2020. And that was in the wake of similar power grabs in Mali that toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020, a repeat coup in the same country by which a civilian-led interim government was sacked in May 2021, and a coup in Guinea that overthrew President Alpha Condé in September 2021. Besides those coups, there was the extra-constitutional succession of former President Idriss Déby of Chad by his son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, after he was killed by rebel fighters in April 2021.

The recurrence of coups and coup attempts in the region gives credence to fears in many quarters of military adventurism in power being contagious. But there is a familiar ecosystem in which soldiers make their grab for power. In Sierra Leone, the political situation has been tense since June when Bio was re-elected, narrowly avoiding a run-off with the candidate of main opposition All People’s Congress (APC). That election was the fifth since the end of Sierra Leone’s brutal 11-year civil war more than two decades ago, which left more than 50,000 dead, several hundreds maimed and the country’s economy destroyed. The result of the June poll was rejected by the opposition and questioned by international partners including the United States and the European Union; and the opposition boycotted the government until October when a peace deal with government was mediated by the Commonwealth, the African Union (AU) and ECOWAS. Since his electoral victory, Bio had faced criticism because of debilitating economic conditions. Nearly 60 percent of Sierra Leone’s population of more than seven million are impoverished, and youth unemployment is among the highest in West Africa.

But nothing – absolutely nothing – justifies unconstitutional change of power. ECOWAS made the point strongly in its statement when it expressed “utter disgust (at) a plot by certain individuals to acquire arms and disturb the peace and constitutional order in Sierra Leone.” The sub-regional body added: “The bloc has always maintained zero-tolerance for unconstitutional change of government. We want to reaffirm our commitment to supporting the government and the people of Sierra Leone’s quest to deepen democracy and good governance by consolidating peace and security so as to foster socio-economic development.” On Tuesday, the body said it was primed to deploy regional support to “strengthen national security” in Sierra Leone. Other world powers were unanimous in condemning the bid.

Soldiers everywhere must get the message that there is no sufficient condition to warrant forceful dislocation of a constitutional order. And the Sierra Leone experience holds out fresh hope for democracy, namely that misguided intervention in power can be contained. Sweet hope!