Twenty-seven civilians killed in August riots in Sierra Leone had been buried Monday within the capital Freetown following a state-led ceremony, as households disputed police accounts of their deaths.
Coffins had been lowered into particular person graves on the Bolima Cemetery within the Waterloo district of Freetown, following a ceremony on the Connaught Hospital Mortuary.
On August 10, a protest about the price of residing spiralled into lethal clashes between safety forces and younger males calling for President Julius Bio to resign.
Within the days following, police mentioned they carried out raids on “hideouts for perpetrators”.
“He was shot from the again in Makeni, in line with the post-mortem report we obtained from the coroner”, Koroma mentioned via tears on Monday.
Koroma mentioned that they had requested and had been denied a household burial.
Mohamed Rahman Swaray, the Minister of Info and Communications, mentioned the state had “struck a deal” with households during which it will lead the ceremony for nationwide safety causes.
He additionally cited the necessity for family to determine our bodies and be current for “examinations”.
Civilians had been killed within the cities of Makeni, within the Northern Province, and Kamakwie, within the North West Province, in addition to in jap Freetown.
He mentioned households had initially feared the lifeless could be buried in mass graves.
“It is a unhappy day and a loss to our nation,” Inside Affairs Minister David Maurice Panda-Noah advised mourners following Muslim and Christian prayers on the mortuary.
Sierra Leone, a rustic of about eight million individuals, has had a fame for relative stability for the reason that finish of its 1991-2002 civil struggle, which left round 120,000 individuals lifeless.
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