Few months ago, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Musa Timothy Kabba visited Algeria to inspect the new Embassy structure in Algiers.
Sierra Leone and Algeria have had a long standing bilateral relationship spanning back to the events of the hosting of OAU summit in Freetown in 1980. Algeria was the biggest external support to the government.
That relationship had a break for decades which was rekindled by President Julius Maada Bio during his visit to Algiers in January 2024. The visit led to the opening of an embassy and the deepening of the relationship.
The two countries share the same stage internationally. Algeria received the chairmanship of the APRM from President Bio and they work with Sierra Leone in the Committee of 10 Heads of States of the AU for the reform of the UN Security Council. The country is also one of the three members of the UN Security Council with Sierra Leone representing Africa in the non- permanent category.
On July 24th, 2024, His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio appointed a new Ambassador to Algeria. He is Ambassador Alhaji Brima Elvis Koroma, the current Ambassador to Senegal. He takes with him to Algiers a wealth of experience in diplomacy, negotiation, education and trade.
During his tour of duty in Dakar, he strengthened the bilateral relationship between Senegal and Sierra Leone through trade, investment, construction, education and diplomacy. He led the process that developed an education exchange between the two countries where students and teachers in Senegal would visit Sierra Leone in an exchange program to be fluent in English and vice versa.
In the area of aviation, he played a crucial role to get Trans Air fly the Freetown route during the COVID period and eventually Air Senegal. With trade potentials between the two countries, he led the President of Senegal, Bassirou Diomaye Faye on a working visit to Sierra Leone where several cooperation agreements were signed in the areas of agriculture, marine, oil and gas, energy, infrastructure and Trade.
Ambassador Koroma is credited to have catered for the repatriation back home of hundreds of stranded Sierra Leoneans in Senegal, Mauritania who were either trafficked or in irregular migration. His support to the Sierra Leone Community Union in both Senegal and Mauritania have been massive.
Algiers await him to tap the numerous potentials beneficial to both countries.
By Ishmael Bayoh, Information Attachè, Sierra Leone Embassy Dakar, Senegal
