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Ordinary Life Resumes in Sierra Leone After Violent Protests: What Happened and Why?_我的网站

一 |     Dozens of businesses, government offices, vehicles, and at least three police stations went up in flames in Freetown, Makeni, Kamakwie, and other cities across Sierra Leone from August 10 through 12, with over 113 people arrested and police introducing an emergency nationwide curfew and deploying tear gas and live ammunition to disperse crowds.,The curfew was lifted on August 13, with banks, businesses, government offices, and most stores reopened and communal services beginning to clear the damage. However, ramped-up security measures, including federal troop deployments to assist police, have been left in place.,What Happened?,Sierra Leone is one of the poorest nations in the world, ranking 186 out of 198 in a recent GDP purchasing power parity ranking. An estimated 80 percent of the population lives in poverty, many of them in the country’s rural areas. Like other nations in Africa, the country has faced special difficulties amid the global economic calamity brought on by COVID, and exacerbated by Western restrictions on Russian exports of agricultural goods and fertilizers amid the security crisis in Ukraine, which has caused a major jump in food prices.,AfricaAnti-Russia Sanctions Left Africa Without Access to Grain and Fertilisers, African Union Chief Says3 June, 11:13 GMT,As a net importer of both energy and food, Sierra Leone is especially vulnerable to global economic conditions, and along with food and fertilizers, fuel and electricity costs have also soared. Food prices alone have jumped by over 40 percent over the past few months, with a bag of rice once costing 350 leones now going for over 500. The country’s Central Bank recently removed three zeros from the national currency in a bid to restore confidence. The country has also been overcome by weeks of strikes by government workers, including doctors and teachers, and by small traders protesting poor conditions.,Coup Plot?,However, President Julius Maada Bio has also accused protesters of having ulterior motives beyond the cost of living crisis.,“This was not a protest against the high cost of living occasioned by the ongoing global economic crisis. The chant of the insurrectionists was for a violent overthrow of the democratically-elected government,” Bio said in an address on August 12 after returning to the country from a holiday in London.,Local media pointed to the chants of “Bio must go” among protesters as they gathered in the capital, and the president accused some of the demonstrators of consisting of “APC Warriors,” a reference to the opposition All People’s Congress party, which governed the country from 2007 until 2018, when Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party won national elections.,No doubt mindful of the violent civil war which shook the country between 1991 and 2002, claiming as many as 70,000 lives and displacing over 2.5 million people, Bio vowed that “in the coming weeks and months, [the] government will undertake necessary security actions meant to guarantee the peace and security of all citizens.”,“The security forces will, and must, act with great restraint and within their professional codes of service. But be assured that my government will crack down hard on violent insurrectionists, their collaborators, their sponsors and their supporters. My government will relentlessly fight those who would rather use terror and gruesome violence to achieve political goals,” the president said.,As a government, we will continue our engagement with Civil Society as we strive to promote sustainable peace, national cohesion and socio-economic development in Sierra Leone. #newdirectionagenda— President Julius Maada Bio (@PresidentBio) August 18, 2022,Bio did not elaborate on who these “sponsors” and “supporters” were, or whether they included any foreign actors.,Geopolitical Context,Like other African nations, Sierra Leone recently rejected calls by Washington and Brussels to show solidarity with the West and Ukraine and impose sanctions on Russia. But even before the escalation of the Ukraine crisis, relations between Freetown and Washington were tense at times. Last year, US President Joe Biden snubbed Bio by refusing to invite the African leader to the US’ so-called “Democracy Summit.” No reasons were given. However, neighboring Liberia, which faced mass civil unrest of its own between 2019 and 2020, and whose officials have been sanctioned by the US over suspected corruption, did get an invite.,While Sierra Leone maintains economic and political ties with its former British colonial masters, and remains a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Freetown has sought to expand its partnerships with other geopolitical power centers, including Russia and China. President Bio attended the Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi in 2019, where he discussed ways to strengthen economic cooperation between the distant nations. In February 2021, Freetown signed onto Moscow’s efforts to prevent the deployment of weapons in outer space. In May 2021, Bio spoke by phone to President Xi Jinping of China, where they discussed the friendly, “brotherly” relations between the two nations, as well Chinese assistance to Freetown in measures against COVID, and agricultural and economic development.,In this context, the reactions of major foreign powers to this month’s unrest have been telling. While the United States, Britain, and the European Union collectively expressed “grave concern” over the “disturbing reports of violence” and urged the parties to “stay calm, promote accountability and ensure respect for human rights,” China’s Embassy smoothed over the protests altogether, refraining from wagging its finger at Freetown and instead trumpeting the expanding cooperation between the two countries.,We are gravely concerned by reports of violence surrounding today’s demonstrations in Sierra Leone. We urge all parties to stay calm, promote accountability, and ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.— Bureau of African Affairs (@AsstSecStateAF) August 10, 2022,Similarly, while UK High Commissioner to Sierra Leone Lisa Chesney lectured President Bio about how “violence has no place in a democracy and the necessary investigation into August 10 can sit alongside de-escalation,” the Russian Embassy in the Republic of Guinea, which concurrently serves as the Embassy in Sierra Leone, only presented a bare bones report on the situation in the country, Bio’s meetings with community and tribal leaders, and indicated that an internal “debriefing” was being created “regarding the causes, course and consequences of the riots on August 10.”。    “So I felt a sharp pain—pressure in my hand as I’m treading water and I pull it towards me and I realize something’s kind of attached to it. So I start hammer punching down and I connected with the animal—the shark—three times. And on the third time, the whole shark flipped the other way and swam out to sea,” said Gallo, who has been a lifeguard for 10 years.,Gallo was playing victim in an ocean training exercise when he was attacked by what is thought to be a 4 to 5 foot long shark off Smith Point Beach.,“And it was that moment where I realized that we were dealing with a shark here and I yelled at the other guards that were in the water, you know, ‘Swim to shore, swim to shore,’ and then swam as fast as I could to shore,” recounted Gallo, who was able to walk away from the encounter and sustained only minor injuries on his right hand and the right side of his chest.,Suffolk County Park officials announced that they would be closing Smith Point and Cupsogue beaches following the attack on Sunday, citing “dangerous marine activity” as the cause.,Two Women Killed in Shark Attack Off Egypt's Red Sea Coast – Ministry of Environment3 July, 20:36 GMT,Officials first ramped up patrol of the Atlantic shore using drones, jet skis, boats and helicopters after a fisherman spotted a 10 foot mako shark near Point Lookout—which is located just 54.5 miles from Smith Point—during Memorial Day weekend.,The type of shark that attacked Gallo has not been disclosed but marine biologists believe waters off Long Island could be acting as a nursery for immature (baby) Great White sharks due to an abundance of bait fish in that area. Warmer waters due to climate change are also drawing hammerheads and bull sharks, too.,“I ripped back and just started hammer-punching, and I felt the rubber texture of the head. It felt like the size of a basketball,” said Gallo of the attack.,On Thursday, a 37-year-old was swimming off of Jones Beach when he sustained a “laceration to his right foot,” according to Nassau County Police, which authorities speculate was a possible shark bite.,On Monday, Smith Point and Cupsogue beaches reopened at 10 a.m., just in time for Fourth of July celebrations, with continued monitoring of the shoreline. The attack on Sunday at Smith Point was the first reported incident of its kind since the beach first opened in 1959.,“I’m grateful that it was a minor injury. It could have been a lot worse, and I’m just very grateful that I walked out of the water on my own. I’m grateful that I received EMT services right away. I’m grateful that I work at a beach with the best lifeguards in the world," said Caitlin Murray who is Gallo's wife. She told the New York Post she didn't believe what had happened to her husband, and at first, believed it was a joke.,“I’m just proud he had the strength to tell everyone to get out, too. I’m so glad he walked away with a scratch, but he’s the best guard to pick on because he’s the biggest dude on the beach. I’m very proud," she added.。

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