Search
  1. Home
  2. West Africa
  3. Sierra Leone

Police station opens in former rebel area

    ABIDJAN

    The recently rehabilitated Tankoro Police Station opened on Wednesday in a former rebel stronghold in eastern Sierra Leone, the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) reported.

    Speaking at a ceremony in the town of Koidu to mark the occasion, the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Governance and Stabilisation, Alan Doss, said the police had "an extremely important responsibility to help consolidate peace and restore democracy especially as we go towards elections." He told hundreds of people, including local chiefs and government officials, that Sierra Leone needed a police force that assisted the people, not one which repressed them, the news release said.

    The Inspector-General of the Sierra Leone Police, Keith Biddle, urged people to hand over to the police shotguns that were not covered under the nationwide disarmament process of all ex-combatants that ended in early January.

    Demobilised former fighters helped to re-build the police station, burnt down during the 10-year civil war between rebels of the Revolutionary United Front and the government, with funds from the Japanese government contributed through the Trust Fund for Sierra Leone, UNAMSIL reported. The Fund, administered by UNAMSIL, has already sponsored several projects for the rehabilitation of several police stations in the capital, Freetown.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

    Share this article

    Our ability to deliver compelling, field-based reporting on humanitarian crises rests on a few key principles: deep expertise, an unwavering commitment to amplifying affected voices, and a belief in the power of independent journalism to drive real change.

    We need your help to sustain and expand our work. Your donation will support our unique approach to journalism, helping fund everything from field-based investigations to the innovative storytelling that ensures marginalised voices are heard.

    Please consider joining our membership programme. Together, we can continue to make a meaningful impact on how the world responds to crises.

    Become a member of The New Humanitarian

    Support our journalism and become more involved in our community. Help us deliver informative, accessible, independent journalism that you can trust and provides accountability to the millions of people affected by crises worldwide.

    Join