Sierra Leone

ADF STAFF Sierra Leonean President Julius Maadi Bio in early April declared a national emergency over rampant drug abuse, particularly of kush, a powerful, synthetic psychoactive drug that has killed hundreds of users. Known for its…

ADF STAFF John Momo is a 27-year-old seventh-grade dropout struggling with drug addiction in the notorious Zimbabwe ghetto in Paynesville, Liberia, where he has lived for nine years. Hundreds of young people — men and women, boys and…

ADF STAFF International observers showered Liberia with praise after the West African nation with a grim history of conflict conducted largely peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections on October 10. “Liberians were able to freely…

ADF STAFF Officials recorded three pirate attacks in the Gulf of Guinea over four days in late June and early July. Crew members of a cargo ship reported that three pirates boarded their vessel in late June as it was anchored in…

ADF STAFF China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promised huge investments in ports throughout the world. But the environmental and human cost of these projects are only beginning to be understood, according to new reporting.…

ADF STAFF With Ebola cases continuing to rise in Uganda, health officials are looking to the lessons learned from the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak to guide their strategy. Mosoka Fallah, program manager for saving lives and…

ADF STAFF Aidu Williams has spent 40 years fishing in Goderich wharf on the western axis of Sierra Leone’s Freetown peninsula. He used to go to sea and return with large coolers full of grouper and snapper in his wooden canoe, but…

ADF STAFF Public sentiment against a planned $55 million industrial fishing harbor at Sierra Leone’s tourist-friendly Black Johnson Beach continues to be strong more than a year after it was revealed. Concerned residents started the…

ADF STAFF China commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet (DWF), has the world’s worst illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing record, and its crews are known to abuse foreign workers, according to the…

ADF STAFF With a population of nearly 8.3 million, Sierra Leone has recorded only 125 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began. As in other countries, experts believe the true coronavirus death toll in Sierra Leone is likely much higher.…