Allieu Sesay, a broadcast journalist working with Freetown-based Radio Democracy, was reportedly assaulted on 15 January 2012 and briefly detained by some policemen drawn from the Operation Support Division (OSD) of the Sierra Leonean police. Sesay met his ordeal when covering the arrest of Aziz Carew, a constituency chairman of the opposition Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) at his Fourah Bay home in the east of the capital Freetown. This was after a bye- election which resulted in violence.

A coalition of Sierra Leone women groups plan to stage a march to push for better security in the country. The women singled out the government for failing in its responsibilities to maintain peace during political rallies. 'Our political leaders are a disgrace,' Yasmin Jusu-Sheriff, one of Sierra Leone's leading women activists, said.

A corruption scandal in Sierra Leone could damage President Ernest Bai Koroma's chances of re-election next year and undermine his attempts to rebrand the West African state. Last month a television documentary investigating illegal logging alleged bribery in the office of Sierra Leone's Vice President Samuel Sam Sumana, dubbed 'Timbergate' by the press.

Cutting off peoples’ limbs - in most cases their hands - was one of the brutal strategies used by members of the Revolutionary United Front to terrify people to support them. Some 27,000 Sierra Leoneans are estimated to have been disabled or have had one or more of their limbs amputated during the 1991-2002 civil war. In 2004 the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC), set up to try to deliver accountability for human rights abuses, issued a report recommending that amputees, war widows, children, victims of sexual violence and the seriously war-wounded, should receive reparations in the form of free education for children, free health care and skills training to be managed by the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA). But many have received nothing.

According to local sources from Sahn Malen Chiefdom, Pujehun district, the police have arrested up to 30 peaceful protesters including their spokesman Eddie Amara and took them to Pujehun. They are accused of public disorder according to the local unit commander. Land owning families are blocking the Socfin (SAC) operation area in Sahn Malen, south of the country. The company is one of the large scale investors in oil palm plantation in Sierra Leone.

Sierra Leone's opposition parties have announced an indefinite suspension of their participation in parliament, citing 'attacks on democracy' they say are being perpetrated by the governing All Peoples Congress (APC) party of President Ernest Bai Koroma. Among other things, they demanded the 'immediate' lifting of a ban by the police on political processions, rallies and public meetings.

Sierra Leone will benefit from medical expertise from Cuba in an agreement negotiated with South Africa's help. According to the agreement, a total of 32 Cuban medical specialists in various categories will be sent to Sierra Leone. The Sierra Leone Government approached South Africa a few years ago, through the Foreign ministry, then headed by current minister of Health and Sanitation Aja Zainab Hawa Bangura, to help solve health problems caused by the 'acute shortage' of staff.

Pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing drugs and medical care that are crucial to ensure safe pregnancy and childbirth, says this Amnesty International report. 'Over the last two years the Government of Sierra Leone has introduced various initiatives to address these challenges, including some welcome steps to increase women's access to health services and reform of the health workforce. In April 2010 the government launched a major initiative to provide free care to pregnant women and girls. However, much remains to be done.'

The Opposition Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) has condemned a police ban on political activities in the country, threatening to paralyse operations of the parliament if the police fail to withdraw it. The opposition argues that the police have no legal authority to take such decisions.

More than a year after the launch of the Free Health Care Initiative, pregnant women and girls in Sierra Leone continue to face serious challenges in accessing the drugs and medical care crucial for safe pregnancy and childbirth, Amnesty International said.

'HRCSL expresses deep concern over the recent spate of violence in the country and regrets the resulting loss of life and injuries to individuals and destruction of property. We refer to reports of political violence recently in Kono followed by the affray at the national stadium during the Egypt/Sierra Leone match and most recently the Bo incident. The incident in Kono and Bo involved political violence resulting in the discharge of firearms allegedly by the police leading to injury to individuals and security personnel.'

Sierra Leone’s Independent Media Commission (IMC) has raised alarm over threats posed by journalists to the peace building in the country. The IMC, which is responsible for regulating the country’s media Thursday, blamed journalists for breaching code of ethics with articles or programmes carrying 'elements of indecency and incitement'. This statement comes in the wake of concerns raised by lobbyists and members of the public over the possibility of widespread violence around elections scheduled for next year.

The National HIV/Aids Secretariat of Sierra Leone, which falls under the National HIV/Aids Control Program (NACP) recently conducted a study on Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) around the country. The 2011 study on MSM in Sierra Leone has broken the silence on the existence of sexual minorities in Sierra Leone. Findings from this survey revealed several problems affecting sexual minorities, especially MSM in Sierra Leone.

Ibrahim Kalokoh, an investigative journalist of the privately-owned For Di People daily newspaper, was threatened with death by two staff members of the Sierra Leone Port Authority (SLPA), following corruption reports by his newspaper against the SLPA’s General Manager, Benjamin Davies. The Media Foundation for West Africa’s (MFWA) correspondent reported that the two men warned him to discontinue 'publishing' negative stories about their boss or they would be killed.

A police officer and two others have been arrested as suspects in the stabbing death of journalist Ibrahim Foday of 'The Exclusive' newspaper near Freetown, Sierra Leone, say the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Foday was beaten and stabbed on 12 June in the east of the capital while covering clashes between neighbouring villages Kossoh and Grafton over a piece of land, report the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) and other IFEX members.

Sierra Leone`s main opposition party has said it will not accept the outcome of the 2012 general election. Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) said there are indications that the process would be flawed if the current head of the National Electoral Commission (NEC), Ms Christiana Thorpe, presides over the polls. The SLPP, who lost power to the ruling All People`s Congress (APC) party in 2007, continues to blame Ms Thorpe for their defeat. The electoral body had rejected 477 votes cast in some polling stations in the eastern region of the country, an area considered to be SLPP stronghold.

Mohamed Kai, acting editor of The Satellite, a privately-owned Freetown-based newspaper, was on the night of 13 June 2011 violently assaulted and injured by armed assailants believed to be militants of the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) Party. Kai sustained bruises all over his body especially his chest and arms. His face was also swollen. Kai was treated and discharged from hospital.

The Sierra Leone Network on the Right to Food (SiLNoRF) has published a report on the sugarcane-to-ethanol project of the Geneva based firm Addax Bioenergy. The researchers found that 'many farmers in project affected communities have already lost their access to fertile lands, though Addax has provided community members with alternative farm lands and confined them to smaller lands, promises by Addax to plough and harrow the lands materialized too late in 2010.' Furthermore, the researchers observed that 'water has become an ever increasing problem for the communities as lands leased by Addax are currently being prepared and even at this initial stage some water bodies such as the "Kirbent" and "Domkoni" streams near the Maronko village in the Makari Gbanti Chiefdom have ceased to exist.'

Ibrahim Foday, a reporter of The Exclusive, a Freetown-based independent newspaper, was on 12 June 2011, stabbed to death by unknown assailants in Grafton, a town in the outskirts of Freetown, where Foday lives. The Sierra Leonean authorities have not identified any suspects or disclosed possible motives for the murder, according to a release by the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist (SLAJ), on 13 June 2011. The SLAJ statement linked Foday’s death to an ongoing land dispute between Grafton and another town, Kossoh. Prior to his death the reporter had published a series of articles, on the dispute that the Kossoh people were not pleased with.

Life for the mentally ill in Sierra Leone is ‘incredibly hard’, writes Roland Bankole Marke, and even for those incarcerated in the psychiatric hospital, there is little to look forward to. Who is to blame for the situation and what should be done to improve access to good clinical care?