Deadly anti-government protests erupt in Sierra Leone

Anti-government protesters in Sierra Leone clashed with police in the streets of the capital on Wednesday, as tensions over the rising cost of living turned deadly in the West African nation.

In a national broadcast, Vice President Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh said that lives of both policemen and civilians were lost, without giving further details. He announced a nationwide curfew from 3 pm local time in a bid to stem the violence.

The protesters on Wednesday were calling for the departure of President Julius Maada Bio, who was elected in 2018 and still has 10 months left in his term. The demonstrators chanted Bio must go" as they made their way through the capital, Freetown.

The government has criticized the unidentified organizers of the protest, warning that the country already has suffered enough through more than a decade of civil war that ended in 2002.

Sierra Leone has gone through a lot so let us change the trajectory and not allow people to divide us, Abdul Karim Will, spokesman for the Office of National Security, told the national radio broadcaster earlier in the day.