Police and other sources said on Thursday said that dozens had been killed in anti-government protests in Sierra Leone. This sharply raised the death toll from the previous day’s clashes. Shell-shocked citizens mainly stayed indoors in the capital Freetown due to the protests.
The police said that six cops and people were killed as hundreds took to the streets to protest the government’s failure in easing economic hardship and is monumental failure in cushioning the impact of rising prices.
This unrest is very unusual for the West African country’s capital Freetown, although a few a have killed in isolated instances in protests in other cities of the country.
One video verified by Reuters from Freetown showed a police officer firing a gun into a crowd.
Sulaiman Turay, a 19-year-old from east Freetown, briefly took to the streets before police started firing teargas and said he later he witnessed demonstrators being shot at from his porch.
“I think people are shocked. It’s not the country we know. Sierra Leone is a peaceful place,” he told Reuters.
President Julius Maada Bio said that Wednesday’s events would be “fully investigated”.
Other Reuters verified images from Freetown showed clouds of smoke and teargas as large crowds threw rocks and burned tyres and armed officers patrolled the streets.
Tensions in Sierra Leone are simmering due to rising prices for basic goods. According to the World Bank, more than half the population of around 8 million live below the poverty line.
Wednesday’s death toll included two police officers killed in Freetown, three in the northern town of Kamakwie and one in the northern city of Makeni, police inspector general William Fayia Sellu told Reuters.
According to staff at the city’s main mortuary, least 13 civilians were shot dead in Freetown. Sources said that four civilians were killed in Kamakwie and another four in Makeni.
Freetown witnessed an uneasy calmness on Thursday as stores were closed and people stayed indoors due of fear of unrest.
The internet was cut for two hours on Wednesday and again overnight, according to internet observatory NetBlocks.
A curfew has been imposed by the police between 7 pm and 7 am in Freetown.
