A woman died after government forces in Sierra Leone fired shots and teargas at the main opposition party’s headquarters, as voters waited to hear the official results of the country’s general election.
President Julius Maada Bio was announced the winner of the presidential vote on Tuesday, but the opposition has disputed the count.
Hawa Dumbuya, 64, a nurse and party volunteer, was shot in the head at the offices of the All People’s Congress (APC) in the capital Freetown after police officers and the presidential guard surrounded the building during a post-election press conference on Sunday.
Samura Kamara, the APC’s presidential candidate, who was seen as the main contender to unseat Bio, wrote on Twitter: “I have been barricaded in my APC party headquarters during my live press conference. Live bullets and teargas fired at my offices by government forces.
“People laying on the floor and the military has surrounded the building. Live bullets fired at my private office at the Party headquarters. This is an assassination attempt.”
Voters in Sierra Leone chose a president, MPs and councillors in the country’s fifth election since the civil war ended in 2002.
Ibrahim Conceh, Dumbuya’s 26-year-old son, said his mother “died a hero for me”. “She died for a righteous cause. Until her last breath she was administering care for injured people. I want the international community to find the killer or the person who ordered such a barbaric act. I want justice.”
Conceh, a law student, has not been able to retrieve his mother’s body after she was taken to the mortuary by police. He wishes to bury her in accordance with Islamic tradition that requires the burial take place as soon after death as possible. “I don’t know the games they are playing,” he said. “I don’t know why they want to hold her body.”
The police did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment.
Yvonne Aki Sawyerr, the mayor of Freetown, who was present when the building was surrounded, said teargas poured in through open windows. She crawled to an office with air conditioning and a fire door where there were 20 people lying on the floor. “There was an onslaught of shots,” she said. “For one-and-a-half hours we were on the ground.”
She added: “Cars were smashed, every car in the vicinity. Tyres were slashed. It was mayhem.”
There have also been reports of violence in Masiaka, Lunsar and Port Loko in the north of the country with dozens of people killed and injured, which the Guardian has been unable to verify.
Mohamed Pope Kamara, the deputy national publicity secretary for the APC, who is in hiding, called it “a massacre”. He added: “A lot of people have been arrested and taken to unknown places. I am unable to ascertain how many.”
The BBC reported that official figures show that Bio won 56% of the vote. Kamara trailed behind with 41%.
A candidate needs more than 55% for outright victory and to avoid a second round.
The election process has been criticised in Sierra Leone and by international organisations. The APC released a statement on Monday rejecting the first tranche results showing Bio was in the lead, claiming that APC agents have not been allowed to verify them.
The statement said: “We call on all our partners to play their part in our collective endeavour to prevent this daylight robbery of the will of the people and to avert the increasingly likely disorder that hangs over our nation due to this ECSL collusion to overthrow democracy through rigging.”
The Carter Center, a US-based election monitoring group, called for calm on Tuesday before the result was announced, as well as expressing concern about the transparency of the tabulation process.
The APC had previously made complaints about the conduct of the election and the electoral commission, saying they did not believe in their ability to hold free and fair elections.
The election took place during a worsening cost-of-living crisis, with poverty and massive unemployment also important factors.
In August last year, at least 27 people died in anti-government protests in Sierra Leone amid frustration at economic hardship.
