In Sierra Leone: Vice President flee with wife as soldiers surround home

Vice President of Sierra Leone has left his home alongside his wife to take refuge at an undisclosed location until his request for asylum at the US embassy is granted.

Following Sierra Leone’s vice president, Samuel Sam-Sumana’s expulsion from the ruling All People’s Congress (APC) party this month, he has reportedly requested asylum at the US embassy in Freedown. The VP told Reuters on Saturday, March 14, that he fled his house with his wife after soldiers surrounded his home. He explained that he’s taking refuge at an undisclosed location until the US embassy responds to his asylum request. An embassy source who spoke to Reuters separately said Sam-Sumana had entered the building. But it was not immediately possible to confirm that officially. Sumana was expelled from President Ernest Bai Koroma’s APC party after an investigation accused him of creating his own rival political movement, leaving doubt over whether he could continue as vice president. The report said government spokesman, Abdulai Bayraytay, who said he was travelling with Bai Koroma in Northern Sierra Leone, declined to comment. The VP had placed himself under in a 21-day quarantine after one of his bodyguards died of Ebola in late February.