Sierra Leone ex-president to return after treason case dropped

Former Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma will return to his home country this weekend, the current vice president said, after treason charges against the ex-leader over a failed 2023 coup were dropped.

Koroma, who led the west African country from 2007 to 2018, left for Nigeria in 2024, days after being charged with treason and other offences over the deadly 2023 uprising.

Judicial authorities cleared him to remain in Nigeria three months for medical treatment, but he ended up staying more than two years.

In July, Sierra Leone's justice ministry said it had dropped the charges against him, without giving a reason.

Sierra Leonean Vice President Mohamed Jukdeh Jalloh told a gathering of local leaders and residents Friday in Koroma's stronghold, the central city of Makeni, that the ex-leader was returning home.

"In the spirit of peace and national cohesion, the former president Dr Ernest Bai Koroma will return to the country this weekend," Jalloh said in a video on Facebook.

In November 2023, armed attackers stormed a military armoury, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations, clashing with security forces.

Twenty-one people were killed and hundreds of prisoners escaped before authorities regained control after what they deemed a coup attempt.

Two dozen soldiers and Koroma's former bodyguard were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 50 to 100 years by a military court for their alleged roles in the mutiny.

Koroma had briefly visited Sierra Leone in July, after the charges were dropped, during a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the invitation of current President Julius Maada Bio.

His return comes ahead of presidential elections set for 2028.