In Sierra Leone, several senior military officers have been arrested on allegations that they’re planning to overthrow the newly-reelected government, The Sierra Leone Telegraph reports.
The development follows a wave of coups that have usurped leadership in six African countries recently.
The police said on Sunday that the senior military officers were among several people arrested and detained by the police, suspected of plotting to use a planned public protest next week “to launch violent attacks on state institutions and citizens”, according to the report.
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The development is tied to Sierra Leone’s political instability, which has escalated following the June 24 2023 general elections that saw President Julius Maada Bio reelected.
“Preliminary investigations have revealed that these individuals planned to use purported peaceful protests between 7th and 10th August 2023, as a guise to unleash violent attacks against state institutions and peaceful citizens,” the police said in a statement at their headquarters on Monday but did not disclose the names of those arrested and the number of officers involved.
Like in other African countries where coups have been successfully carried out, the situation in Sierra Leone has been attributed to bad governance, corruption, and blatant rigging of elections.
The Telegraph reported about the strained relations between the State House and senior military officers in Sierra Leone. These officers are said to be expressing serious concern about the ongoing political crisis in the country, which was sparked by what international and local election observers deem as “rigged election results” announced by the Electoral Commission.
‘Per the report, President Bio was declared the winner of the presidential elections in June, but the actual disaggregated polling station results have been withheld from the public by the Chief Electoral Commissioner, Mohamed Konneh, leading to accusations of electoral fraud.
The main opposition APC party and the international community are urging for the release of all polling station results to ensure transparency and verify the legitimacy of the Bio-led government.
Sierra Leone is divided regionally and tribally, with these divisions permeating all aspects of public life, including the military and police. Senior officers are believed to be deeply dissatisfied with the political impasse resulting from the election fallout between the ruling SLPP, whose stronghold is in the southeast, and the main opposition APC from the northwest of the country.
The country’s economy is facing serious challenges, with a 49% inflation rate and youth unemployment rising year after year without any effective government response.
Foreign investors are becoming hesitant about investing in the country, following President Bio’s harsh measures against protesters, leading to over one hundred casualties.
Elected members of parliament, local councilors, and mayors representing the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) party are boycotting all political involvement and engagement with the government, including abstaining from the country’s parliament, until all polling station results are published or a new chief electoral officer leads a re-run of the elections.’
The situation has culminated into paranoia, believed to have inspired coup premonition for President Bio. He was absent at the last ECOWAS leaders meeting held in Abuja last week, due to security concerns.
Niger is the latest African country whose leadership has been usurped by a military junta. Others include Mali, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso, and Sudan. Nearly all the coupists are citing the same things – bad leadership, corruption, and rigging of elections as reasons for their actions.
With most African countries having a system of governance tainted by the above-mentioned traits, more coups are expected in the continent. The supportive response of the citizens to military takeovers is believed to be an indication of a desperate wish for alternate leadership.
Many believe that the rigging, maiming, and killing that follow elections in Africa is in no way different from a coup, and democratic leadership in the continent has not yielded better results than military rule.