For once the government has reacted speedily to violence between supporters of the ruling and opposition parties. More needs to be done, though, to stop next year’s election campaign degenerating into mindless bloodshed, says Desmond Davies. The 2012 presidential candidate for the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), Julius Maada Bio, on the campaign trail [...]
The Mo- Ibrahim Foundation’s annual Index was released this week, ranking African countries on the basis of good governance. The Index evaluates 53 African countries (prior to the South Sudan’s secession from Sudan) on four counts: Safety and Rule of Law; Participation and Human Rights; Sustainable Economic Activity; and Human Development. The ratings are scored [...]
Amnesty International has commended this West African nation in principle for its renewed commitment to the principles of Human Rights. Despite the country affirming their commitment to Human Rights and Maternal care, the advocacy group have called for ‘necessary steps to abolish the death penalty in national legislation and to commute existing death sentences to [...]
Pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing the drugs and medical care crucial for safe pregnancy, according to a report by Amnesty International, issued on Tues 6th September. This report is part of Amnesty’s on-going campaign to ensure that women and girls living in Sierra Leone are able [...]
The concept of Attitude Change is so natural that in all honesty it cannot be successfully sold out as a national scheme. It is known that only God and fools do not change and therefore there is no need to labour this issue. The fact is that people who do not change their attitude are [...]
Welcome to our new and improved magazine. Your favourite publication on African progression is now bigger and better. From bimonthly we have now expanded to a bigger monthly magazine with a new design and increased pagination and content. In our August issue we report on the Somali drought and ask: has the Western perception of [...]
Lydia Scott in Freetown, on how a former head of state, who has been abandoned by successive governments, is coping with hard times. Valentine Esegragbo Melvine Strasser was the world’s youngest head of state when, at just 25, he and his military colleagues usurped power in Sierra Leone in 1992. Yet, since he lost power [...]
While the judges of the Sierra Leone Special Court presently sit in The Hague to ponder the fate of Charles Taylor, the former President of Liberia, for his role in the ‘blood diamond war’ of Sierra Leone, a book has just been published in London which recounts more of the background to one of Africa’s [...]
The opposition in Sierra Leone has chosen a presidential candidate with a political past that could make or mar his chances in next year’s election, writes Desmond Davies The grandees of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) have plumped for Julius Maada Bio as the party’s candidate for the crucial presidential election scheduled for the [...]
African Minerals Limited (AML) has announced its long awaited $1.5 billion equity sale to Chinese state-owned, Shandong Iron and Steel Group Company Ltd. (SISG). According to a company announcement today, SISG would invest the said amount in return for a 25% shareholding in AML’s flagship Tonkolili project and would also purchase iron ore under an [...]
