Sierra Leone ex-president attends graft hearing

Sierra Leonean anti-corruption investigators on Monday interviewed ex-president Ernest Bai Koroma over government funds allegedly embezzled over his decade-long rule in the West African state, two officials said.

The hearing, which had twice been cancelled over security concerns, took place at an undisclosed location, according to a member of Sierra Leone's anti-corruption committee.

An official at Koroma's office also confirmed that investigators were quizzing Koroma on Monday.

Koroma governed the nation of some 7.5 million people from 2007 until 2018, when he lost an election to Julius Maada Bio, who campaigned against graft.

President Bio last year launched a corruption probe into his predecessor, which ended in March on findings that funds worth tens of millions of dollars from Koroma's time in office remain unaccounted for.

Sierra Leone's government barred Koroma from leaving the country last month, after anti-corruption investigators announced they wanted a hearing with the former president.

However a planned hearing on October 8 in Koroma's native town of Makeni, in the north of the country, had to be called off after protesters prevented it from taking place.

Another meeting scheduled for last week was also cancelled.

Koroma tweeted on Saturday that he is willing to speak to the investigators to "robustly defend my name".

Members of the ex-president's All People's Congress party have also dismissed the corruption probe as a "witch-hunt".

Sierra Leone boasts huge mineral and diamond deposits, but it remains one of the world's poorest nations, still recovering from decades of war and disease.