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Riot police patrol as they pass smoke rising from a roadblock during anti-government protests in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Riot police patrol as they pass smoke rising from a roadblock during anti-government protests in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photograph: Umaru Fofana/Reuters
Riot police patrol as they pass smoke rising from a roadblock during anti-government protests in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photograph: Umaru Fofana/Reuters

Sierra Leone rocked by deadly violence at cost of living protests

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Six police officers and at least 21 civilians killed, as hundreds take to streets in frustration at economic hardship and rising prices

At least 27 people have died in anti-government protests in Sierra Leone, police and other sources said on Thursday, sharply raising the death toll from the previous day’s clashes as shocked citizens stayed mostly behind closed doors in the capital, Freetown.

Six police officers and at least 21 civilians were killed, the sources said, as hundreds took to the streets in frustration at economic hardship and a perceived failure by the government to cushion the impact of rising prices.

The unrest is highly unusual for Sierra Leone, especially in Freetown. A few people have been killed in isolated protests in other cities in recent years.

One video verified by Reuters showed a police officer firing a gun into a crowd in Freetown.

Sulaiman Turay, a 19-year-old living in the east part of the west-African country’s capital, marched briefly before police started firing teargas and said he later saw demonstrators getting shot at from his porch.

“I think people are shocked. It’s not the country we know. Sierra Leone is a peaceful place,” he said.

Police fire at demonstrators protesting over cost of living spikes in Sierra Leone – video

President Julius Maada Bio said the circumstances surrounding Wednesday’s events would be “fully investigated”.

Other verified images from Freetown showed clouds of smoke and teargas as large crowds threw rocks and burned tyres and armed officers patrolled the streets.

The protests were concentrated in the opposition’s northern heartland and the capital.

Long held in check, citizens’ frustrations have been exacerbated by rising prices for basic goods in a country where, according to the World Bank, more than half the population of about 8 million people live below the poverty line.

Wednesday’s death toll included two police officers killed in Freetown, three in the northern town of Kamakwie and one in the northern city of Makeni, the police inspector general, William Fayia Sellu, said.

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At least 13 civilians were shot dead in Freetown, said staff at the city’s main mortuary. Hospital sources said that four civilians were killed in Kamakwie and another four in Makeni.

An eerie calm had returned to Freetown on Thursday, residents said, as stores were closed and people stayed in out of fear of unrest.

The internet was cut for two hours on Wednesday and again overnight, according to the internet observatory NetBlocks.

Police said a curfew would remain in effect from 7pm to 7am local time from Thursday after the government imposed a 3pm curfew on Wednesday in an attempt to stem the violence.

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