Freetown [Sierra Leone], November 26 : The authorities in Sierra Leone declared a nationwide curfew on Sunday. This came hours after an unidentified man tried to break into the country's key military armouries and barracks, The New York Times reported.
The West African nation's president Julius Maada Bio on Sunday said that there had been "a breach of security" at the Wilberforce military barracks in the capital, Freetown, as "some unidentified individuals attacked the military armoury."
"However, they were repelled," he said on social media, "and calm has been restored."
Bio called on the public to stay indoors, adding, "We shall continue to protect the peace and security of Sierra Leone against the forces that wish to truncate our much-cherished stability."
The barracks are strategically placed near Bio's residence, and the armoury is one of the most important places where weapons are kept.
As per local journalists, heavy gunfire was heard in Freetown early on Sunday and soldiers with rocket-propelled grenades and rifles could be seen setting up military blockades in some strategic parts of the city. A flurry of videos posted on social media purported to show prisoners released from Pademba Road Prison, a detention centre in the capital.
Later on Sunday, the Ministry of information said that "major detention centers were attacked," and that "many" prisoners had been released, while others had been abducted by assailants.
But it said that most of the capital was calm and that security forces had "pushed back the assailants to the outskirts of the city."
It added, "The government remains in control and on top of the situation", according to The New York Times.
The news soon spread across the region, which in recent years has endured a series of military coups. In Guinea, Sierra Leone's neighbour, a junta rules despite international efforts to restore civilian governments.
A former military officer, Bio, 59, who took part in two coups during Sierra Leone's civil war in the 1990s, was re-elected this year. But the result of the vote was rejected by his main opponent and questioned by some observers who cited a lack of transparency.
The United States Embassy condemned "in the strongest possible terms" Sunday's attempted break-in and urged residents to cooperate with government security forces. "Such actions have no justification," it said in a statement.
Under Bio's leadership, an additional one million children in Sierra Leone have begun attending school. But the country has been struggling with record levels of inflation and unemployment and some of the highest levels of food insecurity in West Africa. He has also been accused of overseeing violent repression of protests, including in the summer of 2022, when more than two dozen people died in clashes amid demonstrations over rising prices, as per The New York Times.
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