As workers cleared broken glass from the shattered windows of Mohamed Sillah’s restaurant in Freetown, he described the events of last week, when rare protests against soaring inflation and the rising cost of living shook the capital of Sierra Leone.
“It was an explosion of violence,” Sillah said of the damage inflicted on his and other buildings. “We don’t usually see this in Sierra Leone but we are in tough times.”
Businesses, government offices and buses across eastern Freetown were charred or destroyed completely in the violence as police and security officials brutally cracked down on demonstrators. At least 21 protesters and six officers were killed. A video verified by Reuters shows police firing live ammunition into the crowds.
Protests are usually restricted in the tiny west African country, where most of the country’s 8 million people live in poverty. But like many other African countries Sierra Leone has been particularly badly affected by rapid inflation caused in part by the war in Ukraine. And it was the dire economic situation that brought people out on to the streets.
In the week following the protests, police and army convoys patrolled the busy commercial streets in the districts of Rokupa, Makeni and Kamakwie where Freetown’s protests took place. A tense calm settled, with ordinary life gradually returning.
The government has partly blamed the opposition for the protests, branding them an attempted coup, and launching an inquiry into alleged organisers. However, protesters interviewed by local media described their movement as “faceless” rather than orchestrated by one group, and reflective of widespread discontent.
President Julius Bio dismissed the idea that the protests were reflective of public anger. “This was not a protest against the high cost of living occasioned by the ongoing global economic crisis,” he said. “The chant of the insurrectionists was for a violent overthrow of the democratically elected government.”
But on the ground it is clear that many people shared the protesters’ grievances.
Inflation rose to almost 28% in June, fuelled first by the Covid pandemic easing and then the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Food inflation is at the highest level in decades, almost doubling since September 2021.
In recent months doctors and teachers have gone on strike, with demands for pay increases to meet rising inflation.
At a market in Western Rural, traders who asked not to be named lamented how the prices of rice, onions, tomatoes and beef had all risen by about 50% over the last year, with the price of fuel and palm oil roughly doubling.
Marcella Samba-Sesay, the director of Campaign for Good Governance, a civil society group, said that the government had not clearly articulated to the majority of people why the economic challenges had worsened.
“There is an information gap in the country where the government’s message doesn’t reach many people. They have not effectively communicated to people why things are getting bad and that is making people angrier,” she said.
Anger has also been rising over the authorities’ refusal to permit protests. Under the terms of a public order act adopted in 1965 during colonial rule. protest organisers usually have to ask the police for permission to protest.
“But most of the time, when the issues are political, the police will say no,” said Samba-Sesay. “So people who want to come out and protest have not been given the permission to do so.”
In July, hundreds of women working in markets protested in Freetown, condemning the government’s handling of the economy. Many shops and stalls closed in support of the demonstrations. Dozens of women were arrested by police. Several alleged they had been beaten and sexually abused by officers.
“People are really suffering, and feel the government is not responding or allowing them to have a voice,” Semba-Sesay said. “We need people to be able to channel grievances through legitimate means.”
