The year 2019 was a mixed bag of experience for Sierra Leoneans, starting off with a persistently tough economic situation inherited from the previous year.
But despite the economic realities, it was an interesting experience, characterized by the good, the bad and the ugly.
One of the best news happened at the tail end of the year, with the December 12 ruling by the regional court of ECOWAS against the government’s ban on pregnant girls from attending school.
Earlier Sierra Leone also joined about a dozen countries in the World Health Organization Africa Region to introduce the joined measles rubella vaccine, as part of efforts to end two of the world’s deadliest and debilitating diseases. In September, the country relaxed its visa policy, introducing a visa on arrival system.
In terms of infrastructural development, the government finally opened tender for the construction of the Lungi Bridge, the most ambitious infrastructure project in the country. Also in November a landmark project designed to decongest the country’s cities was launched. The US$50million World Bank funded project entails a major overhaul of the transportation sector.
On October 1, Air Cote d’Ivoire resumed flight to Freetown after a year of break following a dispute sparked by a court ruling against it. The following month a new airline – Trans Air – joined the aviation industry. The Senegalese airline linked Freetown to Dakar via Banjul.
In December, Sierra Leone became the first country in West Africa to host a drone corridor for the supply of medical and other services by unmanned aerial vehicles.
After 12 years of trying, Sierra Leone in November finally passed the United States Millennium Challenge Corporation score card, even though it failed to secure the funding that comes with such.
After decades of campaign against the notorious criminal libel law, an amended version of the colonial era legislation was finally presented to parliament in December.
On the negative front, in August the country again had one of its worst environmental disasters, with a heavy flood that ravaged Freetown, killing at least seven people. There were reports of flooding in other parts of the country. In the same month the government announced stringent measures to control inflation.
In October hundreds of pigs were killed by a mysterious ailment. But there was no conclusion on the exact cause of what officials suspected to be the African Swine Fever.
KC/abj/APA