The UNHCR office in Guinea has confirmed that the names of the five innocent former Sierra Leone soldiers recently arrested and detained in Guinea under the supervision of the illegal Sierra Leone SLPP regime are known to them. Reports say these five Sierra Leoneans who had asked for political asylum through the auspices of the UNHCR in the capital Conakry had lived in Guinea peacefully and lawfully for the past few years. (Photo: UNHCR Head Office in Geneva, Switzerland).

While residing there for their health and safety, reports have intimated that the five Sierra Leoneans had thought it wise to seek political asylum after being chased out of their own country by the failed SLPP regime of Julius Maada Bio and the SLPP party whose barbaric political, tribal and regional agenda have played a pivotal role in driving many innocent Sierra Leoneans into exile. And the five former soldiers are no exception as they have been in exile for the last couple of years. (Photos: Major Juana Kabba and Major Patrick Abu O Sesay are in detention).

Sierra Leoneans are worried that Maada Bio’s violent regime would not hesitate to kill these five innocent compatriots whose only crime is belonging to the northern region of Sierra Leone or sympathetic to the main opposition APC party whose strongholds are based in the north and northwest of Sierra Leone. Maada Bio has played the tribal and regional cards unfairly against critics of his failed regime and since 2018 when he took power many northerners have lost their lives for the same bad reasons adopted by Maada Bio.

Thank fully, the UNHCR is aware of these five Sierra Leoneans and this situation would be the catalyst to dissuade the Bio killing machine from executing their dangerous plans against them. Hopefully, it is too late for Bio’s killers in Sierra Leone to murder the five soldiers. Reports say the UNHCR Protection Officer in Guinea recently went to the police station in Conakry where the five are held and to see them and reports say the five are in high spirit and were delighted to know that UNHCR is interested in the matter. (Photo: Fatmata Koroma is in detention).

The illegal President Bio and his SLPP Kamajor militias in police and military had wanted to kill them secretly, and that was why they secretly connived with some corrupt Guinea police officers to kidnap the five innocent Sierra Leoneans. Reports from Guinea say only very junior police officers initially knew about the arrest and detention of the Sierra Leoneans. But now, reports say top police officers and government officials and of course UNHCR know about the arrest and detention of the five persons. So any bad preparation by the Bio regime to murder these five individuals would not work anymore.

Sierra Leoneans are demanding justice to be seen to be done in Sierra Leone when the five persons are extradited to Freetown. Also, it was only after the secret was made public that Maada Bio’s agents changed their minds about smuggling them into Sierra Leone. Today, the five arrested in Guinea including Major FS Kamara, Major Patrick Abu Odendeh Sesay aka PAO, Major Juana Kabba, Fatmata Koroma and Major I Bangura are in safe hands. Luckily, they are in detention with the full knowledge of the UNHCR. This is good news for the safety of these innocent detainees.

It has also been confirmed that the five in police custody are not part of the gallant eight soldiers who masterminded the raid and the execution of the rescue mission of their colleagues at Pademba Road Prison in Freetown on November 26, 2023 security breach which the failed Bio presidency later described as a military coup. The SLPP Ministry of Information and Civic Education has however noted that five fugitives apprehended are connected to the November 26 chaos.

UNHCR in Guinea