A Joint Mission of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), and the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS) is in Freetown for consultations with Sierra Leone political stakeholders amid reports that the opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) has withdrawn participation from a crucial tripartite Committee peace talk.
In a joint Press Release on Tuesday, the three organisations said the mission was “a follow up to the Agreement for National Unity signed between the Government of Sierra Leone and the (opposition) All Peoples Congress (APC) on 18 October 2023.”
“The Mission is co-led by H.E. Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), and H.E. Fatoumata Jallow-Tambajang, former vice President of the Republic of The Gambia,” the statement said.
It explained that the delegation “will meet with senior government officials and the leadership of the APC, other political parties, as well as all relevant actors and stakeholders in the country, including the hierarchy of the security agencies and the Tripartite Committee in the course of the assessment of progress made in the implementation of the Agreement for National Unity.”
The Mission will also pay a courtesy call on President Julius Maada Bio.
“As moral guarantors of the Agreement, the Joint ECOWAS-AU-UNOWAS Mission would wish to urge all political actors and the citizens to remain calm and to prioritise the peace, unity, and stability of the country above every other partisan interest,” the release added.
The government of Sierra Leone and the APC signed the Agreement for National Unity last October following international mediation to end political tensions from the disputed 24 June 2023 general elections in which the SLPP claimed victory.
The APC rejected the results of the elections accusing the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL) of manipulating the vote in favour of the SLPP.
A Tripartite Committee comprising international mediators, the Sierra Leone government and the APC was charged with implementing the national unity accord.
However, the APC said in a statement on 14 June that it was withdrawing participation because representatives of the government of President Julius Maada Bio had refused the Committee access to the results announced by the ECSL.
It said the government “aided and abetted the refusal by the ECSL to release vital data and information needed by the Committee to examine the outcome of 24th June 2023 election including the 60% announced results.”
The APC said it would not resume participation in the Tripartite Committee “until the ECSL produces the necessary information.”
As part of efforts to resolve the post-election crisis that has resulted in two reported coup attempts and a major jailbreak in Sierra Leone, ECOWAS has facilitated the exiling of former President Ernest Bai Koroma in Nigeria.
Sierra Leone, which has yet to fully recover from a devastating 11-year civil war that ended in 2002, faces serious socio-economic challenges including poverty, spiralling inflation, unemployment and a high crime rate among the youth.
