Drawing upon near-death personal experience to shine light on the brutality of Sierra Leone's rebel forces, Karim Bah discusses the little-publicised events of the August 18th student uprising in Sierra Leone. What really happened to Vaffie Konneh, an activist who attempted to help with the organisation of student protesters? And why have the ruling class and international community alike abandoned Sierra Leone's youth? Students, Bah argues in this week's Pambazuka News, are the key to reform and should be at the forefront of the struggle for human dignity, social justice and the redistribution of national wealth, wealth which belongs to each and every Sierra Leonean, and not just the country's elites.

Two Sierra Leonean radio stations have been stripped of their licences. The national regulatory body, the Independent Media Commission (IMC), says the stations failed to comply with the country's media code. The IMC announced the withdrawal of the licenses of Radio Unity which belongs to the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), and Radio Rising Sun, owned by the ruling All People's Congress (APC) on Jul. 7.

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) has announced that it would on July 13, 2009 march through the streets of Freetown, as part of its long-sustained pressure to get the country’s Supreme Court to give a ruling on the case it filed in February 2008 challenging the constitutionality of provisions of the Public Order Act of 1960.

The Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) on June 15, 2009 imposed a news blackout on the country’s judiciary, as part of its sustained campaign to get the Supreme Court to expunge the obnoxious Public Order Act of the 1960 from the laws of Sierra Leone. A source told the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) that the action is as a result of the Supreme Court’s long delay in giving its verdict on the case filed by SLAJ challenging the constitutionality of the Public Order Act which is very inimical to media freedom in particular and freedom of expression generally.

cc Recent rioting and violence in Freetown and the east of Sierra Leone has brought into focus the fragility of the post-conflict peace, held in place since 2002, writes Lisa Denney. At first glance, says Denney, it points to a new breed of trouble in the West African nation, a harbinger of the party political and ethnic violence that some predict will be the next great challenge faced by the country. Not just the work of criminal elements, the riots belie the potential for a new wave of violence that requires serious prevention efforts, Denney cautions. But events since the violence have taken a surprising turn, with inter-party tensions prompting youth cooperation, rather than escalating conflict. Thus a seemingly low-point in party politics may prove to be a necessary wake up call that quells rising tensions, rather than fuelling them, Denney suggests.

Massive rural-urban migration into Freetown is putting pressure on the city’s capacity to provide clean, safe drinking water for all its residents, writes Roland Bankole Marke. In a country whose infrastructure is ‘obsolete’ and nearing ‘breaking point’, Marke calls for the nation to make an overhaul of its structural water supply system its ‘top priority’. At present water shortages leave the city vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, while the poorest cannot afford water sold privately. Solutions discussed by Marke include organisation at community level to raise funds for securing water provision, and the construction of a dam on the Orugu River.

Despite some impressive gains in rebuilding Sierra Leone seven years after the end of its brutal civil war, the situation in the West African nation remains fragile, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said. “The outbreak of political violence in March of this year was a wake-up call on challenges that require urgent and continued attention,” Mr. Ban told the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission’s high-level meeting on Sierra Leone.

Authorities in Freetown have charged Sylvia Blyden, Publisher and managing editor of the privately-owned 'Awareness Times' newspaper in Sierra Leone, with “defaming” President Ernest Bai Koroma, the sub-regional rights body, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), said in a statement received by PANA Thursday.

Reporters Without Borders has voiced its concern for journalist Sylvia Blyden, forced into hiding after receiving death threats, and for Umaru Sitta Turay, who suffered a vicious knife attack. Both journalists were targeted for attack because they had allegedly “libelled” Sierra Leone’s president, the worldwide press freedom organisation said, urging the head of state to call off the “witch-hunt” against them.

It was just a small loan worth the equivalent of $100, from a local microfinance bank. But it enabled Mojamah who had just come back to her home in Kenema, Sierra Leone, after the country’s civil war, to set up a dressmaking business to support her family of six. In neighbouring Liberia, Amelia, a single mother with five children, got a loan of $83 to help expand her work crushing rocks used to build roads. The loan worked so well she applied for another, worth $200, so she could hire workers to help meet the growing demand for roading material, as Liberia rebuilt itself after the war.

On April 8, the UN-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone passed sentences on three former commanders of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), bringing to an end the trials of militia leaders deemed responsible for atrocities committed during the country's bloody civil war, fought from 1991 to 2002. Issa Sesay, the interim leader of the RUF after the death of its founder Foday Sankoh, field commander Morris Kallon and chief of security Augustine Gbao were found guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law. The three were slammed with a total of 117 years in prison.

Sierra Leone village chiefs, community members and women who perform female genital cutting have signed an agreement stating that girls in northern Kambia district will not undergo genital mutilation – or ‘cutting’ – before age 18. The number of girls being cut during the December 2008-January 2009 initiation season in Kambia dropped drastically, according to Finda Fraser, advocacy coordinator at local non-profit Advocacy Movement Network (AMNet), which runs a ‘Say No to Child Bondo’ campaign in the district.

Sierra Leone's vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana, on Mar. 13 ordered an indefinite ban on radio stations owned by the ruling All Peoples Congress (APC) and its main rival, the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). This comes in the wake of a wave of politically-motivated clashes between rival party militants across the country these past two weeks. The situation has deteriorated so much so that by-elections in Gendema, a remote town bordering Liberia, had to be put on hold.

The West African Network for Peacebuilding-Sierra Leone (WANEP-SL) is concerned and completely disturbed about the spate of unprecedented political violence that erupted and continues to erupt in Pujehun, Koidu, Kenema and Freetown leaving properties looted and vandalized thereby leading to abuses and violations of human rights on peaceful and unsuspecting citizens in Sierra Leone.

Women’s groups in Sierra Leone have signed a statement condemning the use of violence against women during a political clash which took place in Freetown on 16 March. The statement calls for the police to ensure that those responsible for the violence be brought to justice and for government and political party leaders to publicly condemn violence against women, including in a political context.

Serious gender-based crimes were committed against women and girls during Sierra Leone's decade-long armed conflict. This article examines how the Special Court for Sierra Leone has addressed - and, in some cases, has failed to address - these crimes in its first four judgments. The June 20, 2007 trial judgment in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council case assists international criminal law's heretofore limited understanding of the crime against humanity of forced marriage, especially through the separate concurring opinion of Justice Sebutinde and the partially dissenting opinion of Justice Doherty.

An international tribunal has found three Sierra Leone rebels guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity. RUF leaders Issa Sesay, 38, and Morris Kallon, 45, were convicted of 16 of the 18 charges, while Augustine Gbao, 60, was found guilty on 14 of the counts. The Freetown trial of the RUF rebel leaders, related to Sierra Leone's 10-year civil war, began in mid-2004.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has strongly condemned the humiliating and degrading treatment suffered by four women journalists who were stripped naked in public in Kenema, Eastern Sierra Leone where they were covering events to mark the International Day against female circumcision.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the recent wave of threats and attacks on journalists in Sierra alone. Three journalists, namely Gibril Gottor of Radio Kollenten in Kambia, Alex James of Citizen Radio in Freetown and Mama Jalloh of the United Nations radio in Freetown have all received threat messages as a result of their work.

For the second consecutive year Sierra Leone has come last in the UN Development Programme ranking of human development indicators of 179 countries. Some analysts say Sierra Leone is nonetheless advancing in some areas and that the impact of the country’s 11-year civil war must be taken into account for a full measure of progress.