Aug 12,2022:At least six protesters and six police officers were killed as anti-government protests in Sierra Leone turned violent, according to officials and local media reports.
Hundreds of people took to the streets on Wednesday in a public display of anger over economic conditions in the country and to protest the perceived failure by the government to cushion the effect of rising prices.
At least six protesters were killed, the AFP news agency reported, citing a morgue technician at the Connaught Hospital in Freetown; local media reported that seven protesters died.
Two police officers were killed in Freetown, three in the northern town of Kamakwie and one in the northern city of Makeni, Police Inspector General William Fayia Sellu told the Reuters news agency.
Al Jazeera was not able to independently verify death tolls.
Deadly unrest is uncommon for Sierra Leone, especially in the West African country’s capital Freetown. Relative calm returned to the city on Thursday after a nationwide curfew was imposed. Police and troops patrolled the streets of the capital, and some shops in the city’s central business district had reopened, AFP reported.
