Sierra Leone bury riot dead
Twenty-seven civilians killed in August riots in Sierra Leone were buried in the capital Freetown on Monday after a government-led ceremony.
At the Borima Cemetery in Freetown’s Waterloo neighborhood, coffins were lowered into individual graves after ceremonies at the Connaught Hospital morgue.
On August 10, protests over the cost of living erupted into deadly clashes between security forces and young people demanding the resignation of President Julius Bio.
The next day, police announced they had raided the “perpetrator’s hideout.”
“According to the autopsy report we received from the coroner, he was shot in the back at Makeni,” Coloma said Monday through tears.
Coloma said they requested burial of the family members but were denied.
Information and Communications Minister Mohammed Rahman Swaray said the country had “made a deal” with the family to lead the ceremony for national security reasons.
He also said a relative would need to identify the body and be present for the “examination.”
Civilians were killed in the cities of Makeni in the North Province, Kamakuwi City in the North West Province, and east of Freetown.
The family initially feared the dead would be buried in a cemetery, he said.
“Today is a sad day and a loss for our country,” Interior Minister David Maurice Panda Noah told mourners after Muslims and Christians prayed at the morgue.
Sierra Leone, with a population of around 8 million, has been known for relative stability since the end of the civil war that killed around 120,000 people between 1991 and 2002.
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Sierra Leone bury riot dead
Source link Sierra Leone bury riot dead
