Government of Sierra Leone

Ministry of Information and Communications

8th Floor Youyi Building, Freetown

Sunday October 16, 2022

Public Notice

Burial Of August 10, 2022, Victims

The public will recall that on August 10th this year, a violent insurrection took place in parts of Eastern Freetown, Makeni and Kamakwei in the North, during which six serving police officers and 27 civilians lost their lives.Immediately following the state burial of the six police officers who were brutally murdered by insurrectionists, government has been engaging with family members of civilians who lost their lives during and in the aftermath of the insurrection. In the process, many unidentified corpses have been identified by their relatives and post-mortem examinations conducted in their presence, but some remain unverified.

After several meetings with family members, an agreement has been reached for a state-led burial on 17th October 2022 at Bolima, Waterloo, in full collaboration with family members and plans are at an advanced stage for a dignified burial of all the deceased.

Following specific instructions from His Excellency President Julius Maada Bio that all corpses be given a dignified burial, each corpse will be buried in separate graves following a dignified ceremony.

Furthermore, as tradition demands and as a show of compassion, government has given each family 20,000 New Leones (20,000,000 Old Leones) to help bereaved families with funeral rites.

While condoling with the bereaved families, we wish to reaffirm our commitment to a peaceful, stable, and tranquil Sierra Leone where every Sierra Leonean could aspire to their full potentials.

Signed

Director of Information