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Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio claims ‘calm restored’ after government said the attack was repelled.

Sierra Leone has declared a nationwide curfew after gunmen attacked a military barracks in the capital, Freetown, according to a government statement, after months of post-election unrest in the West African nation.

Sierra Leone’s government on Sunday said they had repelled the attack at the military’s main Wilberforce barracks and were in control of the situation.

Information Minister Chernor Bah assured the public in a statement on Sunday that “the government and its state security forces are in control”.

Bah urged citizens to “stay indoors” as security forces “continued the process of apprehending the suspects”.

Witnesses told the AFP news agency they heard heavy gunfire and explosions in the capital early on Sunday morning, while a video shared on social media appeared to show plumes of smoke rising from the streets.

Other witnesses said they heard exchanges of fire near a barracks in Murray Town district, home to the navy, as well as outside another military site in Freetown, AFP reported.

Government ‘in control’

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio confirmed the security breach in a statement on his official X social media account on Sunday, blaming a group of “renegades” for the attack.

Bio said calm had been “restored” and security forces were continuing to “root out the remnant of the fleeing renegades”. He urged all citizens to unite to protect democracy in the West African country.

“The PEACE of our beloved NATION is PRICELESS and we shall continue to protect the peace and security of Sierra Leone against the forces that wish to truncate our much-cherished stability,” said the post.

Fellow Sierra Leoneans,

I bring you greetings from the Presidential Lodge in Freetown.

In the early hours of this morning, there was a breach of security at the Military Barracks at Wilberforce in Freetown, as some unidentified individuals attacked the military armoury.…

— President Julius Maada Bio (@PresidentBio) November 26, 2023

In a statement issued on Sunday, West Africa’s regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), condemned the attempt to “disturb constitutional order” in Sierra Leone.

Growing unrest

Sierra Leone has seen political violence and unrest since the re-election of President Bio in June.

That election was the fifth since the end of Sierra Leone’s brutal 11-year civil war – more than two decades ago – which left tens of thousands dead and destroyed the country’s economy.

International observers condemned a “lack of transparency” in the ballot count and Sierra Leone’s opposition party initially disputed the results and boycotted the government.

Since his electoral victory five months ago, Bio continues to face criticism because of debilitating economic conditions. Nearly 60 percent of Sierra Leone’s population of more than 7 million are impoverished, and youth unemployment is among the highest in West Africa.

The unrest in Sierra Leone comes after a series of military coups that have dealt blows to democracy in the region. There have been eight military coups in West and Central Africa since 2020, including in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Guinea.

Joe Biden has called for the truce between Hamas and Israel in Gaza to be extended after more hostages were released on Sunday.

The latest captives to be freed include four-year-old dual Israeli-American national Abigail Edan, whose parents were reportedly killed in the 7 October attacks.

The US president said her father was “gunned down while using his body to shield little Abigail”, who then ran to a neighbour’s house where she was taken hostage alongside another family.

“What she endured is unthinkable,” Mr Biden told a news conference.

He added: “Thank God she’s home… I wish I were there to hold her.”

Israel-Gaza latest: IDF says 17 hostages transferred to Red Cross

It came as another 17 hostages were released by Hamas on Sunday night, including 13 Israelis, three Thais and a Russian.

Another 39 Palestinian prisoners, were released by Israel on Sunday as part of the deal.

The release comes as part of an agreement between the two sides for a four-day truce, which is due to end on Monday night.

But Mr Biden said he hoped the “humanitarian pause” could be extended to allow more captives to be freed – and for more aid to be taken into Gaza.

He told reporters in Nantucket, Massachusetts: “that’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow, so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief to those in need in Gaza.”

Mr Biden said the US would “not stop working until every hostage is returned to their loved ones,” while he also emphasised that “innocent children in Gaza are suffering greatly as well”.

The president said a total of 58 hostages had now been freed by Hamas.

He is due to hold further talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later on Sunday.

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The Israeli Defence Forces said 13 of the latest hostages to be freed were now back in Israel, while the four others were being taken to Egypt.

Under the terms of the four-day truce, Hamas will release a total of 50 hostages, while Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners.

The agreement had been at risk of collapse earlier on Saturday when Hamas’s armed wing accused Israel of breaking some of its terms, before it was salvaged following mediation by Qatar, Egypt and the US.

Prior to Sunday, 26 Israeli hostages had been released by Hamas, including 13 on Friday and 13 on Saturday. A further 14 Thai nationals and one Filipino were also been freed.

Irish-Israeli schoolgirl Emily Hand, who had initially been feared dead, was among those freed on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, 78 Palestinian women, children and teenage prisoners were in turn released by Israel as part of the deal, including 39 on Friday and 39 on Saturday.

A total of around 240 hostages were taken by Hamas during its attack on 7 October, in which more than 1,200 people were killed.

More than 14,000 people have been killed since then in Gaza, including more than 9,000 women and children, according to UN estimates.

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Watch the moment Palestinian woman Israa Jaabis returns home and embraces her son after eight years imprisoned in Israel. She was released on the second day of a prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas which saw 39 Palestinians come home.

While the motive behind the attack is unknown, it came amid rising anti-Palestine sentiments in the US.

Three young Palestinian men have been shot near a university campus in Vermont in the United States, according to media reports.

Reports said the incident took place on Saturday evening near the University of Vermont’s campus in the city of Burlington.

The three were identified as Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdel Hamid and Tahseen Ahmed. They are studying at three different universities in the US.

According to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), two of the victims are in intensive care while one was due to be released on Sunday.

“[We] are deeply distressed by the recent incident involving three of our graduates,” the Ramallah Friends School in the occupied West Bank, where the three studied, said in a statement on Facebook.

“While we are relieved to know they are alive, we remain uncertain about their condition. We extend our thoughts and prayers to them and their families for a full recovery, especially considering the severity of the injuries – as Hisham has been shot in the back, Tahseen in the chest, and Kinnan with minor injuries.”

Three young Palestinian men, Hisham Awartani, Tahseen Ali and Kenan Abdulhamid, students at Brown and other US universities, were shot last night on their way to a family dinner in Burlington, USA. Their crime? Wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh. They are critically injured. And… pic.twitter.com/OwafFkHwg4

— Husam Zomlot (@hzomlot) November 26, 2023

The motive behind the attack is unknown. When contacted by Al Jazeera, the Burlington police did not immediately respond to a request for further information.

‘Hate a motivating factor’

The ADC said it was contacted about the shooting earlier on Sunday, and that it has “reason to believe [it] was motivated by the three victims being Arab”.

“According to the information provided, the three victims were wearing a keffiyeh and speaking Arabic. A man shouted and harassed the victims, then proceeded to shoot them,” the group said in a statement.

This morning, ADC was contacted about the shooting, after reviewing the information, we have reason to believe that the shooting was motivated by the three vitims being Arab.

The three victims were wearing a Kuffiyeh and speaking Arabic. A man shouted and harassed the victims, pic.twitter.com/b8yoDvK8Nv

— ADC National (@adc) November 26, 2023

 

“Given the information collected and provided, it is clear that hate was a motivating factor in this shooting,” said ADC’s Director Abed Ayoub.

“We call on law enforcement to investigate it as such. The surge in anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian sentiment we are experiencing is unprecedented, and this is another example of that hate turning violent.”

The incident came amid a rise in anti-Palestinian sentiments in the US, with both Republican and Democratic politicians backing Israel’s war in Gaza despite the mounting Palestinian death toll and growing accusations of war crimes.

Israel’s ground and air assault on the besieged Gaza Strip has so far killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, and left vast swathes of the Strip in ruins.

China has said its outbreak of a respiratory illness stems from the flu and other known pathogens – while questions about its origins rise.

A spokesperson from China’s National Health Commission said clusters of respiratory infections across the country are caused by an overlap of common viruses.

They cited the influenza virus, rhinoviruses, the respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, the adenovirus as well as bacteria such as mycoplasma pneumoniae as the culprits.

In response, the ministry called for more fever clinics and vaccinations for children and the elderly.

Ministry spokesman Mi Feng also said: “Efforts should be made to increase the opening of relevant clinics and treatment areas, extend service hours and increase the supply of medicines.”

The statements come after a Beijing children’s hospital earlier told state media CCTV that at least 7,000 patients were being admitted daily to the institution, exceeding capacity.

And last week, the largest paediatric hospital in nearby Tianjin reportedly received more than 13,000 children at its outpatient and emergency departments.

The World Health Organisation formally requested information on the outbreak from China earlier this week, describing the rare request as a “routine” check.

On Thursday, Chinese health officials carried out a teleconference with the WHO, providing data that showed an increase in hospital admissions of children due to diseases commonly seen in the autumn since October.

The WHO added Chinese officials maintained the spike in infections had not overloaded the country’s hospitals, and explained they made the request via an international legal mechanism.

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Despite the information, the group also said there was too little data to assess the risk of the reported cases.

Chinese health authorities later said they found no “unusual or novel diseases”.

They added they believe the rising infections are also linked to the country’s first full cold season after strict Covid restrictions were lifted last December.

Three years on from when the cases were first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in the latter months of 2019 – there is still debate about the origins of the coronavirus outbreak.

Writing on X, formerly Twitter, Dr Krutika Kuppalli, who is part of the WHO’s emergency programme, said the outbreaks “really could be anything”.

She warned against jumping to conclusions, saying: “The point is we need information.”