Sierra Leone | Council on Foreign Relations

Sub-Saharan Africa

"New Deal” Has Potential to Provide New Solutions for Fragile African States

This is a guest post by Hamish Stewart, a co-founding Director of the Centre for African Development and Security. The world is optimistic about Africa’s future, but to unlock its economic potential concerted efforts must be made to engage with its most fragile states. The New Deal for Engagement in Fragile States is a country-led peace and statebuilding framework agreement aimed at stabilizing and developing the world’s most fragile states. The agreement is sponsored by the g7+ grouping of fragile states and accepted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) member states at the High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan in 2011. It provides a mechanism or approach for fragile states themselves in order to build political support for those countries transitioning from conflict and to maintain stability where regional tension threatens renewed conflict. The New Deal is a long-term framework. In addition to security, its goals include access to justice at the domestic level, as well as job creation in the continent’s burgeoning private sector. Many fragile states are resource-rich. While they have the potential for growth, transparent resource management is essential if they are to curb corruption and control illicit money flows that retard economic and social development. That, too, is a goal of the New Deal. The return of conflict in Mali and the recent unrest in central Mozambique underline the fragility of even successful transitions to peace. And no low-income or fragile state has yet achieved a single Millennium Development Goal. The New Deal for Fragile States represents a new, long term approach. Its potential is illustrated by the positive developments in Liberia and Sierra Leone in the decade following civil wars. Somalia’s newly elected government has announced that it will conduct all future development cooperation through the New Deal. The New Deal is, among other things, a follow-on to the Millennium Development Goals and involves a new conversation. On April 18, the International Dialogue on Peace Building and State Building convened a stakeholder meeting in Washington, DC to promote The New Deal as a framework for development and peace building.

Blog Post by Guest Blogger for John Campbell April 23, 2013 Africa in Transition
Sub-Saharan Africa

Guest Post: Sierra Leone: Cholera Outbreak Underscores Need for Public Health Investment

This is a guest post by Mohamed Jallow, a former interdepartmental associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, and now a program development specialist at IntraHealth International. Mohamed is originally from Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone is in a state of “health emergency” after a cholera outbreak inundated the country’s ill-equipped health system. According to the WHO, since the beginning of the year, Sierra Leone has recorded over 11, 653 cases of cholera, and 216 deaths. To many Sierra Leoneans though, this latest cholera outbreak is not unexpected. But the speed and scope of its spread within such a short period is a clear sign of the country’s precarious health care situation. According to the WHO, only about 30.5 percent of households in Sierra Leone have access to proper sanitary disposal (PDF), and only a small proportion of wastewater receives any kind of treatment prior to its discharge. A more worrisome fact is that as this outbreak has proven, the country does not have a clear emergency response system to tackle a crisis of this scale. The civil war wrecked the country’s health system, which will take years to recover. But there are steps the authorities could have taken to avert this outbreak, or at the very least have in place an efficient plan to mobilize the population against the spread of the disease. Instead, there was a mixture of confusion, uncertainty, and panic in many areas of the country. The disease surveillance and monitoring system proved to be ineffective. Critical communication lines were hampered by lackluster bureaucratic hurdles and inefficiency. The instinct of the authorities was not to take the initiative when incidences of the outbreak first occurred, but to plead for help from the international community. No one is expecting a country like Sierra Leone, given its recent past, to have the best healthcare and emergency response mechanisms in place, or to tackle the age-old problem of unchecked population growth in major urban areas. However, a little more earnest ground work designing and implementing preventive measures, and a little more investment in community health programs, especially in prioritizing training and resources for frontline health workers who usually have direct access to high-density population centers would have gone a long way in preventing disease outbreaks of this scale.

Blog Post by Guest Blogger for John Campbell August 28, 2012 Africa in Transition
Sub-Saharan Africa

Guest Post: At Victory Temple, "Leading By Example, Not By Doctorate"

This is a guest post by Jim Sanders, a career, now retired, West Africa watcher for various federal agencies. The views expressed below are his personal views and do not reflect those of his former employers. Why am I running a guest post on a Nigerian church in Alexandria, Virginia? We sometimes overlook West Africa’s growing and vibrant social and cultural influence in the United States. Jim Sanders recently visited a Redeemed Christian Church of God parish and interviewed the Nigerian pastor. The conversation provides fascinating insights into a Nigerian community in suburban Washington, D.C. and also into aspects of Nigerian religious sensibility at home. His post provides an opportunity for we Americans to “see ourselves as others see us.” Lagosian Shina Enitan, pastor of Victory Temple, Alexandria, one of 12 Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) parishes in Virginia, spoke with “Africa in Transition” on Sunday afternoon, following services. Roughly 80 percent of the congregation is Nigerian, with Sierra Leoneans and Ghanaians comprising the majority of the remainder. Young couples comprise more than 50 percent of the parish. The majority of people here face problems associated with immigration, Pastor Shina explained. Having grown up in Nigeria, but now living in the U.S., many experience culture clash. A key role of this church is to help them handle their transition to a “new reality,” particularly in the areas of marriage, parenting, and careers. However, he stressed Victory Temple’s growing outreach to local charities such as Carpenter’s Shelter. Pastor Shina noted that he had not attended a seminary (although he will eventually) and therefore has no theological education. Instead, the RCCG offers in-house training in leadership, pastoral care, and discipleship. Preparation is practical, focused on carrying out the Bible’s teachings. “Leadership by example, not by doctorate,” he said, represents the main thrust. "Do the word you preach," is a guiding principle. Strong influence by American missionaries, who provided Bibles and other materials, helped build interest in Christianity. “In Africa, we are ready to read the word, and do the will, then we come to this country only to find Americans very relaxed,” Pastor Shina confided. “Those early missionaries sowed the fire and we are here now in the U.S. doing what they did for us then in Nigeria. In the U.S., the RCCG envisions having a church within a ten minute drive of every American, so that when people turn back to God, they will have a place to go immediately.” When asked whether a common thread links church bombings in Nigeria with events such as the Colorado theater shooting, Pastor Shina drew attention to Biblical descriptions of the End Times, of which such incomprehensible tragedies are characteristic. But he added that “people just don’t fear God anymore,” and that fear is what restrains us from evil. Moreover, removing prayer from schools also removes a young person’s moral compass. On Nigeria’s future, he said: “It is a great country, but going through a birthing process." Update: I received an interesting email from a retired army chaplain, Roger Dill. He writes: "Jim, I wish everyone had your spirit to be open to going where few go. I was blessed to grow a refugee congregation in the midst of an old and dying church in Louisville several years ago. They were from both Liberia and the Congo, and they were the heart of the worship in that church and my joy in ministry. We as the Church in America are not where we need to be, but thank God , we are not where we used to be. Grace for the journey."

Blog Post by Guest Blogger for John Campbell July 25, 2012 Africa in Transition

Sub-Saharan Africa

Charles Taylor Sentenced - a Step Forward?

In April, the Special Court for Sierra Leone in The Hague found Charles Taylor guilty of many crimes against humanity related to his involvement with the civil war in Sierra Leone. (Taylor was not tried for his activities in Liberia where he was a major warlord as well as chief of state.) On May 30, three justices sentenced Taylor to prison for fifty years. As he is 64 years of age, he will spend the rest of his life incarcerated. He will serve his sentence in the UK. The Samoan presiding judge was appointed by the government of Sierra Leone. The other two—one from Northern Ireland and one from Uganda—were appointed by the UN Secretary General. The reserve judge, also appointed by the Secretary General, is from Senegal. Taylor’s conviction and sentencing will be widely viewed as a step toward ending the impunity of African "big men." He is the first former chief of state to be tried, convicted, and sentenced by an international court since the post-World War II Nuremberg tribunal, and also the first African. Reflecting what is likely to be a widely held view among human rights activists, Human Rights Watch staffer Annie Gell commented that the verdict "marks a watershed for efforts to hold the highest level leaders accountable for the greatest crimes." Others will have reservations. Taylor’s defense barrister, the Jamaican-born Courtenay Griffiths, is a criminal lawyer, not a specialist in international law. In a media interview, he argues that the process and evidence were flawed, stating: "One of the things that I discovered...is that international criminal law is not about law at all. It’s all about the politics of power.” There are other aspects of the Taylor trial likely to give Africans pause: it took place in The Hague—not in Africa; Taylor was not prosecuted for crimes committed in Liberia, raising the specter of selective prosecution; Taylor will serve his sentence in the UK, not in Sierra Leone; and of the three sentencing judges, only one is from Africa. There was also the curious episode at the sentencing, reported by the press, in which the reserve judge, El Hadji Malick Sow, apparently tried to interrupt the hearing to voice opposition, but his microphone was cut off. More generally, many Africans are concerned that all of the cases at present before the International Criminal Court (which in a sense is the successor to the Special Court for Sierra Leone) involve Africans. The press quotes Justice Sow as saying that the international justice system is "in grave danger of losing all credibility." For most of us, Taylor is a monster and justice has been done. But the criticisms voiced by Griffiths and others highlight the difficulties in creating a system of international jurisprudence—including procedures and evidentiary standards—that is in accordance both with justice and political reality. And at present, Justice Sow’s warning about Africans losing confidence in the international justice system must be a concern.

Blog Post by John Campbell May 31, 2012 Africa in Transition
Sub-Saharan Africa

Guest Post: Convicting Charles Taylor: Justice for Sierra Leoneans

This is a guest post by Mohamed Jallow, a former interdepartmental associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, and now a program development specialist at IntraHealth International. Mohamed came to the United States as a refugee from Sierra Leone in 2003. After an unprecedented trial that lasted almost four years with 115 witnesses testifying, the one-time convicted criminal, jail breaker, ruthless warlord, and former president of Liberia was finally convicted on eleven counts of terror, murder, rape, sexual slavery, and crimes against humanity. This verdict, though long overdue, will certainly bring some solace to his many victims in both Sierra Leone and Liberia as the former celebrated its 51st independence anniversary on Friday. Nevertheless, though Mr. Taylor’s crimes against the people of Sierra Leone finally caught up with him, the scars of his crimes have still not completely healed from a war that lasted for eleven painful years. To the children of Sierra Leone, he is the man whose rebel army and its Revolutionary United Front (RUF) proxy robbed them of their childhood, turned them into child soldiers, and forced them to not only destroy their own country, but to commit untold atrocities against their own people. To the women of Sierra Leone, he is the man who stripped them of their dignity by supporting a rebel group that used wholesale rape and sexual slavery as weapons of war. To the thousands of amputees who still roam the streets of Freetown, he is the man whose actions cost them their limbs and robbed them of their livelihoods, sentencing them to a lifetime of poverty and despair. Personally, as a young man growing up during the civil war in Sierra Leone, I knew the name Charles Taylor and what it represented before I could even read or write. My whole life and that of millions of my countrymen was shaped by Mr. Taylor’s actions, both directly and indirectly. I lost loved ones who were struck down by bullets Mr. Taylor supplied to the RUF. I lost friends who were turned into killers by Mr. Taylor’s rebels and their proxies who wanted Sierra Leone to taste the bitterness of war. I lost the memories of my childhood at the hands of thugs Mr. Taylor trained, equipped, and supported. Like the poet Sidney Lanier, I have still not completely come to terms with my experiences during the conflict, and always seem to ask myself, “How does God have the heart to allow it?” How does he allow people like Charles Taylor, Foday Sankoh, and others to bring so much death, so much destruction, and so much suffering to so many people? Yet, many have opposed international trials for people like Mr. Taylor at the Hague. They see these trials as a conspiracy against African leaders and Africa’s sovereignty. Whatever our political or philosophical differences might be, the fact remains that Mr. Taylor should be held accountable for what he has done. For the thousands of amputees in Sierra Leone, it was a day of justice. For the tens of thousands who lost their homes and livelihoods, it was a chance to finally bring closure to the sad memories of war. And for the estimated fifty thousand Sierra Leoneans that lost their lives during the decade long upheaval that Mr. Taylor supported, it was a day to finally rest in peace. Happy Independence Day Sierra Leone!

Blog Post by Guest Blogger for John Campbell April 30, 2012 Africa in Transition
Sub-Saharan Africa

Sierra Leone: Change You Can (Not) Believe In

http://youtu.be/DDisMlwlSgk This is a guest post by Mohamed Jallow. He is an interdepartmental associate at the Council on Foreign Relations and graduate of the CUNY Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies. Mohamed came to the United States as a refugee from Sierra Leone in 2003. Sierra Leone is in the middle of a corruption firestorm after a damaging al-Jazeera investigative report uncovered what appears to be corruption at the highest levels of government, including the vice president. Sorious Samura, the country’s celebrated investigative journalist, broke the story for al-Jazeera after he infiltrated government offices. For two thousand dollars, undercover reporters were granted access to the vice president and other senior government officials who hinted at the possibility delaying the official ban on timber exports and allow the so-called investors to engage in what is clearly an illegal activity. You can watch the entire video here. Corruption is not new in Sierra Leone, and some might say it is a normal part of conducting business there. The report has generated considerable public interest, both in Sierra Leone and in its influential diaspora communities. Many are calling for the resignation of the vice president, Sam Sumana, who is featured in the video apparently talking to the undercover reporters and appears to indicate that he could arrange for a delay in implementing the moratorium on timber exports. Though he personally denied any involvement, two of his close associates where offered money. In a rather bizarre attempt at damage control, Sylvia Blyden, a well-known newspaper proprietor and government insider, released her own documentary, attempting to absolve the vice president of corruption and pinning the blame on his associates. She alleged that the original report is a witch-hunt aimed at bringing the vice president down. In a hastily produced video, she goes to great lengths trying to claim entrapment and accuses al-Jazeera of fabrication. Sierra Leoneans nevertheless are outraged about the entire scandal, and for what they see as graft within a government that made fighting corruption its top priority. The question now is not whether someone should be fired and held accountable, but whether cronyism will once again trump accountability—as it has in the past. There have been similar outcries over the past two years, following a slew of large mining and land deals that were signed without proper vetting or transparency. These concerns are justifiable because the country remains one of the most corrupt in Africa, a fact that is impeding its recovery from the decade long civil war that ended in 2002. To its credit, the government has stepped up efforts to combat corruption, though it will be a difficult battle against entrenched interests. In fact, thanks to an avalanche of reactions from the country’s growing and influential social media community, the government and its anti-corruption agency are now vowing to investigate the matter and bring all those involved to account. For the first time, Sierra Leoneans are foregoing their normal ambivalence toward corruption and want this government, despite its rhetoric, to go after its sacred cows. Failure to do anything about this scandal will spell doom for an otherwise popular president as the 2012 general elections approach.

Blog Post by John Campbell November 30, 2011 Africa in Transition

Sierra Leone

A Conversation with Ernest Bai Koroma and Alassane Ouattara

This meeting is cosponsored with the Africa-America Institute.Please join the Presidents of Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone as they discuss the challenges of post-conflict governance in Africa.Related Reading:John Campbell Africa in Transition Blog

Event with Alassane D. Ouattara and Ernest Bai Koroma September 20, 2011
Sierra Leone

A Conversation with Ernest Bai Koroma and Alassane Ouattara

Ernest Bai Koroma, president of Sierra Leone, and Alassane Ouattara, president of Côted'Ivoire, discuss the post-conflict growth of their respective countries, as well as their individual involvement in the African Union.

Event September 20, 2011
Wars and Conflict

Guest Post: Reflections on West Africa

Supporters attend the launch of Senegal's controversial African Renaissance statue, April 3, 2010. (Eve Coulon/Courtesy Reuters) This is a guest post by Mohamed Jallow. He is an interdepartmental associate at the Council on Foreign Relations and graduate of the CUNY Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies. Mohamed came to the United States as a refugee from Sierra Leone in 2003. I recently returned from a three-country tour of West Africa. It was my first trip back since I left in 1999, when the Charles Taylor-backed Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded my home of Freetown, Sierra Leone. My recent trip took me to the Gambia via Senegal, and then to Sierra Leone, marking an emotional and exhilarating homecoming. Much more than that, the trip was an opportunity to reacquaint myself with the struggles of a continent I hold dear and to assess the changes that have taken place since I left. My first destination was Dakar, Senegal, where in 2003 I boarded a Tap Air Portugal flight to the United States after fleeing the madness in Sierra Leone. At the Dakar airport where the imposing African Renaissance Monument greets visitors from a mountaintop overlooking the capital, one gets the feeling of a continent and a country on the move. This country was and still is regarded as one of the few outposts of tranquility in a tumultuous region. While recent political issues regarding presidential succession and an economic crisis fueled by the global economic downturn have threatened that stability, these problems, from my initial assessment, appear to have been averted, and the economy is slowly growing again. Businesses are flocking to the country, and it has since replaced Ivory Coast as the economic hub of West Africa. After a few days in Dakar, and a spine bending road trip through Senegal’s countryside, my next stop was neighboring Gambia, the smallest country on mainland Africa, dubbed the “Smiling Coast.” My initial impressions of the Gambia were how I imagined 1950s Stalin Russia, with pictures of the president everywhere. Back in 2002-2003 when I lived here, the Gambia was an insignificant outpost better known as a cheaper Caribbean for European tourists. Today, the country is a different place despite its share of governance issues. I could see noticeable improvements in infrastructure and the economy for a country that once boasted only one paved road, and an economy dependent on peanuts and foreign aid. The sheer number of cell phone companies and foreign banks competing in this tiny economy shows just how far the country has come from less than a decade ago. Sierra Leone was the last stop on my trip. My most recent memory of Sierra Leone was being holed up in a corridor at home during intense fighting between RUF rebels and Nigerian soldiers acting under the umbrella of the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG). Since fighting ended in 2002, Sierra Leone has begun to recover, so much that I could hardly notice the physical scars of the war. Spending for development and anti-poverty measures has dramatically increased, evident through improved roads, schools, and health care facilities. Corruption is down and economic activity is booming again. While Sierra Leone continues to rely on foreign assistance, the country is indeed making progress towards self-sufficiency, and I could see that in the enterprising spirit of the people. Besides the good food and spoiling attention I received from family and friends, this visit was a real eye opener. While there is still the poverty, corruption, and political issues, these countries are no longer stagnant as they had been when I left them a decade ago. They are making considerable strides both economically and politically. The people in all these countries seem to have realized that their destiny should be to make their own countries better so people like me won’t have to leave.

Blog Post by John Campbell August 9, 2011 Africa in Transition