The Latest Breaking News from Freetown

How Europe’s most wanted cocaine trafficker turned Sierra Leone into the world’s first true narco state

Drawing on dozens of interviews with intelligence and police officers across two continents, a Guardian investigation reveals the murderous cost of our insatiable appetite for cocaine

The Guardian - UK · Oct 14

London council seizes social housing flat rented by Sierra Leone first lady

Fatima Jabbe-Bio kept tenancy in Southwark despite living for much of year at presidential lodge in Freetown

The Guardian - UK · Jun 11

Young Africans will inherit a climate crisis: how kids in Sierra Leone are getting ready

If today’s young people are tomorrow’s leaders, they will inherit not only the world’s problems but also the tools and ideas to solve them. One of the biggest changes they will face is a changing climate. This means hotter days, more intense storms and floods, longer droughts, and big changes…

The Conversation · Apr 20

Chimp refuge shuts doors to tourists in deforestation protest

Workers said deforestation in the area was fuelled by ‘land grabbing’ for development

The Independent UK · Aug 1, 2025

‘Smoking to survive’: How Sierra Leone’s youth got hooked on kush

A cheap synthetic drug known as kush is ravaging West Africa and its epicentre is Sierra Leone. The government has declared kush a public health emergency, but poverty and trauma are slowing efforts by communities to help unhook young people from its sometimes deadly hold.

Radio France Internationale · Jun 29, 2025

Why Freetown’s celebrated tree planting scheme won’t work for other African cities, or the planet

More than a million trees have been planted in the city of Freetown in Sierra Leone since 2020. This reforestation scheme, known as “FreetownTheTreeTown”, has been celebrated for its innovative approach to climate action, with ambitious plans to plant another 5 million trees by 2030 and 20 million more by…

The Conversation · Feb 27, 2025

From a colonial hill town to Idris Elba’s island masterplan: what do these Sierra Leone developments tell us about urban elites?

Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, is celebrated as a city founded to resettle freed slaves in the 1790s. Over the following century, it became a truly cosmopolitan port city as people from across western Africa and the Americas made it their home.

The Conversation · Jan 3, 2025

'We fall and we rise': Some amputees in Sierra Leone turn to farming to combat discrimination

Sierra Leone's brutal civil war from 1991-2002 created about 28,000 amputees

The Independent UK · Dec 27, 2024

Sierra Leone Student Tackles Toxic Air Pollution

In his small Freetown workshop, engineering student James Samba tinkered with batteries and electrical parts he hoped could help clean up Sierra Leone's polluting public transport system.

International Business Times · Dec 21, 2024

Ib Kamara's guide to Freetown, Sierra Leone: Tokeh Beach, cassava leaf stew and Empire nightclub

The creative director at Off-White and editor-in-chief of Dazed tells Joe Bromley about the city where he was born

Evening Standard · Dec 19, 2024