Sierra Leone: Sunday attacks were attempts to kick out president Bio – Minister

Sierra Leone’s government said on Tuesday that the Sunday attacks on prisons and military armoury in the capital, Freetown, were a failed attempt to remove President Julius Maada Bio.

The government added that bodyguards of former President Ernest Bai Koroma largely led the failed coup.

The information minister, Chernor Bah, and the chief of defence staff, Lt. General Patrick Lavahun, told a news conference that the former president could not be directly linked to the move but that investigations were ongoing.

Bah added that the coup attempt failed, and plenty of the leaders were either in police custody or on the run.

He vowed that security agencies would capture those who had gone hiding and bring them to the full force of the laws of Sierra Leone.

According to authorities in the West African country, gunmen attacked a military barracks, a jail, and other facilities on Sunday, releasing over 2,200 detainees and murdering more than 20 people.

Sierra Leone’s main opposition, the All People Congress of the former president, including the ECOWAS regional bloc condemned the attacks in a statement.

In August, a number of military officers were arrested and accused of plotting a coup against the president.

West African bloc Ecowas said on Tuesday it was ready to deploy regional support to “strengthen national security” in Sierra Leone.