On 20 December, Sierra Leone’s parliament voted to remove from office the country’s Auditor General, Lara Taylor-Pearce and her deputy, Tamba Momoh, completing a process that began in 2021. Taylor-Pearce, who had served as Auditor General since 2011, had a reputation as a highly independent investigator and her office was regarded by many as one of Sierra Leone’s most effective state institutions. In November 2021, however, she and Momoh were suspended by President Bio for ‘professional misconduct’ and a ‘lack of professional performance’ over their audit of an overseas medical trip he took. The charges were confirmed and their dismissal recommended by a judicial tribunal following hearings that were criticised by civil society for a lack of due process and evidence. The tribunal also recommended the establishment of a mechanism for monitoring and disciplining the Auditor-General, a proposal that analysts fear would undermine the office’s constitutionally protected independence. 

Sources: The Sierra Leone Telegraph (1), The Sierra Leone Telegraph (2), Africa Confidential, Analysis of the Report of the Tribunal on the Auditor-General and Deputy Auditor-General, Democracy in Africa.     

On 20 June, Sierra Leone’s parliament passed a bill banning child marriage. Child marriage is a long-standing and widespread problem in the country, where 30 per cent of girls and 4 per cent of boys are married before the age of 18, with rates reported to be even higher in rural areas. Girls affected by the practice suffer a range of damaging impacts, including diminished access to education, health problems and greater vulnerability to domestic violence. The Prohibition of Child Marriage Bill  criminalises marriage for anyone under the age of 18 and creates a number of related offences, including conducting a child marriage, promoting child marriage and attending a child marriage. Amongst other things, it also automatically voids child marriages contracted after the law’s enactment and provides for the safeguarding and care of child marriage victims. The bill was signed into law by President Julius Maada Bio on 2 July.  

Sources: Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2024, Office of the First Lady, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, The State House

On 3 January, four charges were filed against former president Ernest Bai Koroma, including treason, misprision of treason and the crime of  “harbouring”. Charges were also filed against eleven others on the same day, including one person who had been a bodyguard to Mr. Koroma. The charges relate to an outbreak of violence in November 2023, in which hundreds of inmates were freed from the central prison in Freetown, and 18 members of the security services were killed. The government described the violence as an attempted coup d’état. The charges, and the allegations of an attempted coup, follow on from the disputed election result in June 2023, in which current President Julius Maada Bio’s Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) was declared the winner of the elections (by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone) over Dr Samura Kamara, the candidate of the All People’s Congress (APC), the party of former president Koroma. The election appeared to fall short of international standards for electoral integrity.

Sources: Africa News, British Broadcasting Corporation, Deutsche Welle

In what Sierra Leone’s Information Minister described as an attempted coup, on 26 November, gunmen in the country’s capital Freetown attacked military barracks and a prison before being overwhelmed by the security forces. On 28 November it was reported that 20 people had been killed in the fighting and that almost 2,000 inmates had escaped. The government blamed the attack on ‘renegade soldiers’ but did not identify the coup leaders. Political tensions in the country have been high since its disputed general election in June and in August a number of soldiers were arrested in connection with an alleged coup plot.       

Sources: Africa Confidential, Politico SL, Reuters, British Broadcasting Corporation, The Sierra Leone Telegraph, The Africa Report