AWE Media Sierra Leone

By: alusinerehme.wilson@awokonewspaper.sl After their 2-1 loss to Malimba Queens, Suba United, a female football powerhouse team from Makeni, bounced back with a 1-0 victory against Rangers Queen on their home turf. Suba FC’s win in the ongoing Equal Opportunity Women's Cup, organized by StarBurst Park, has boosted their morale, thanks to their talented forward, Zeneba Koroma who took advantage of Rangers Queen weak defense to net in the last minute of the game, bringing her total goal tally to four and topping the goal scoring chart. Koroma’s crucial goal had not only propelled her team to second place in the league's standings with six points and six goals, but also closed the gap with current leaders, Malimba Queens, who are three points ahead. Presently, Suba FC’s Jeneba Koroma is leading the goal scoring chart with four goals. She has disclosed her determination to scoring more to help her team secure victory in the competition. However, Suba FC's fate to secur...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Public places including market places, night clubs and some strategic meeting points on main streets in the Northeastern regional headquarters Makeni were for the first time all empty on Tuesday between the hours of 4-10pm local time. The emptiness some residents have told Awoko Newspaper is as a result of the announcement of the final presidential election results on the day that confirmed incumbent Julius Maada Bio, presidential candidate of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) as the president elect with a record votes total of 1,566,932 equalling 56.17% of the total votes cast. The result saw Mr. Bio being declared winner of the historic polls by the Returning Officer and Chief Electoral Commissioner of the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL) Mohamed Kenewui Konneh, because of the total number of votes casted across the 11,712 polling stations nationwide on Saturday in his favour had surpassed the 55% constitutionally required percentage requir...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson 29 years old Isatu Kanu, a mother of two, says voting on Saturday, June 24 for the first time in the general elections of her country was “bitter-sweet.” Kanu who whose current age makes her eligible to would have first voted since 2012 said she could not exercise her franchise although eligible to vote in her nation’s last two general elections because of pregnancy and hunted by fatigue to show up at registration centres for the successive voter registrations. Thankfully, when the voter registration started for the June 24, 2023 election I was not pregnant this time, I was excited and had to show up early at the registration centre in my area and registered then showed up also for the verification and as early as 6:45am on Saturday, I had already joined other eligible voters at the Baptist primary school, Lady’s Mile, Makeni in readiness to vote, but my experience here today is a memorable one, Kanu explained. “Although I arrived early at the centre to vote ...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Covering the crucial match day-5 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations encounter between Sierra Leone and Nigeria at the host’s new found home venue SKD Stadium in Monrovia, my camera lenses spotted a somewhat empty stadium. Except for the presidential stand and a few cover stands that were encouragingly occupied, all the other stands in the stadium were either relatively empty and a few had a countable size of spectators. It was the many empty stands at the stadium that motivated me to interview some fans of the host nation, Sierra Leone - a country believed to be playing its home games previously in front of thousands of supporters at the Siaka Steven Stadium in Freetown, about what it means playing away from home? Lamin Sheriff, who said he was visiting Monrovia for the first time, said he was there from Kenema where he had lived for 34 years since he was born said supporting Leone Stars in the last three years has help him “to travel to different places o...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Even though his nation’s 2023-TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nation in Cote D’Ivoire was shattered by their Nigerian on Sunday, Leone Stars and Bo Rangers forward Musa Noah “Tombo” remains by far the most popular player from his nation. Kamara who’s soon to clock 23 on August 6 this year became the fans center of attraction at the SKD-Stadium in Monrovia when he replaced Mustapha Bundu during Sierra Leone’s must-win AFCON 2023 qualifier match against Nigeria despite his side bowing 3-2 to the visitors. Liberians, Nigerians among other spectators including President George Weah, a former Lone Star skipper and World Best Player enjoined Sierra Leoneans to cheer up the 22-year-old talismanic goal-machine. As if that was not enough, fans led by a teenager identified as one of the admirers of Musa “Tombo” jumped over the perimeter fence and hugged the player for photographs. From different angles in the stadium fans were shouting the football’s name in anticipation...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Sierra Leone, one of Africa’s Football loving nations whose supporters dearly anticipated making it to the finals of the 2023-TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations tournament proper in Cote D’Ivoire qualification hopes ended on Sunday evening at the SKD Stadium in Monrovia. Despite putting out what is believed to be a good show against their Group-A opponents (Super Eagles of Nigeria) whose in-form forward Victor Osimhen took advantage of John Keister’s disorganized back-four twice to have a brace to his name before the first quarter hour mark. In the last five minutes to the end of the first half Sierra Leone’s forward Mustapha Bundu renewed hopes for this side as he pulled once back to make it 2-1 in favour of the visitors from Nigeria. Returning from their dressing rooms, Sierra Leone’s coach John Edward Keister introduced some fresh legs when he substituted Mustapha Bundu for Musa Noah “Tombo” Kamara and Saidu Fofanah for skipper Steven Caulker, a move t...

SLFA Deputy Scribe reveals hosting of WAFU A’ U20 Female Championship By: Alusine Rehme Wilson The Deputy General Secretary of the Sierra Leone Football Association – (SLFA) Mohamed Benson Bawoh has disclosed that work is in progress for the hosting of the 2023 edition of the West Africa Football Union (WAFU) A-Zone U20 championship for female national teams. Benson who’s reportedly the current Acting General Secretary also said that matches will be played in the east and southern regional cities of Kenema and Bo where the tournament has been scheduled to be hosted simultaneously from May 22 to June 3 this year. As the momentum develops toward the West African football loving nation’s match to host its second zonal championship after hosting the maiden edition three years again respectively in the North and Southern cities of Makeni and Bo, the local football federation (SLFA) has made a historic announcement of the appointment of the National U20 Female team. Impressively, the techn...

“MOVING INTO THE INFORMAL SECTOR: THE ROLE OF THE PRESS Statement delivered by SLAJ Vice President, Sahr James Bangah Mr. Chairman, Director General NASSIT, Distinguished guest and colleagues, Good Morning. On behalf the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ), I want to congratulate the leadership of NASSIT and his team for their brilliant move to organize a day session for media practitioners on the Theme “MOVING INTO THE INFORMAL SECTOR: THE ROLE OF THE PRESS. Thirty-five years ago, the International Labour Organization coined the term “the informal sector” to describe the activities of the working poor. Today, this sector accounts for nearly half of all workers in the world and it is expanding in both developing and industrialized countries and play a major role in employment creation, production and income generation but unfortunately most of the informal workers do not have secure employment contracts, workers benefits, social protection or workers representation but th...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson  A recent study conducted by this writer indicates that the majority of jelly coconut traders in Makeni are Female between the age brackets of 18-38 years.  Unlike the male jelly sellers who on a daily basis, hawk along the central business area of the municipality pushing wheelbarrows to sell coconuts, women carry on their head at least one hundred coconuts in either trays or large basins hawking along several areas in the Northern city. This reality inflicts much body pain on the female jelly coconut retailers who mostly have to sell for at least eight hours a day and buy cooking condiments to prepare meals for their families at the expense of their health which prompted me to take my microphone to some of them to let them tell their stories.  Their revelations about why and how they took up selling jelly coconut, the banes they undergo and its relevance are shocking. 38-year-old Kamathor Sesay who was born and raised at the Masongbo community in Bombali Dis...

By: Alsuine Rehme Wilson Some residents in Makeni, mainly women, have told Awoko Newspaper that they’re unhappy with the extensive power outage in the city and its environs especially with the way and manner the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority in the area is regulating the supply of electricity. Most of them in conditions of animosity said they’ve and are still being subjected to suffer a lot of damages with their freezers, televisions, fans plus their other electrical devices as a result of the irregular-rotational supply of lights in the city. “Our livelihood for over ten years now depends on our freezers from where we freeze and sell cold water and assorted drinks on daily basis but since EDSA started giving us on an off supply without any public notification, most of our freezers and other electrical device have been damaged, some are beyond repairs which has increased the burden on us. “Our once bright city is no longer called the city of light and it’s now hard fo...

By: Alsuine Rehme Wilson   April 1st every year in Sierra Leone is recognized as “April Fool’s Day” and many people across districts in the West African country do make attempts to cajoling others to fall in their prank traps.  But this year’s April’s 1st saw two of Sierra Leone’s most trending comedians Kindo Armani and Yematta one minutes, fifty seven seconds-(1:57) long skirt stole the show as things turned out to be unfortunate for Comedian Kindo Armani whose attempt to use the day to prank comedian Yematta after he was being trapped backfired.  In the video, Kindo Armani who was being slapped thrice by Yematta haven loose his guards in an attempt to see his girlfriend named Fatu, Yematta’s treasured daughter and ventured to Connelly bale himself out pretending he was at Yematta’s compound to cajole and also prank him being the day was April 1st (Fools Day) as he has been doing over the years on the said date. The video by the experienced duo remains trending on the internet as now...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson For the first time in the history of Sierra Leone’s Media, the elite vocation is set to get its maiden Journalism Welfare Fund launched for Journalists, the Sierra Leone Association of Journalist-(SLAJ) announced on Friday. According to the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists-(SLAJ), the launching of the Journalism Welfare Fund will take place at the Association’s multipurpose hall in Freetown on Monday, 14th February, 2022 as part of SLAJ’s Golden Jubilee Celebration. SLAJ President, Ahmed Sahid Nasralla says the time is now for members of the public to show some love to Journalists and by extension to the media family in Sierra Leone by contributing to the Journalism Welfare Fund which he confirmed has already been embraced by Mercury International among other key national development partners of the Sierra Leone Association of Sierra Leone. On the purpose of the Journalism Welfare Fund, the SLAJ President has since said: “the fund will be exclusively use...

By: alusinerehme.wilson@awokonewspaper.sl  Since the early morning of yesterday, Commercial Moto Bike Riders in Makeni have been busy storming main streets in the municipality and its environs protesting over the death of one of their 30-year-old commercial bilk rider colleague who’s alleged to have been harassed and stabbed to death on Sunday night at Conteh Street in Makeni, Northern Sierra Leone.  Hundreds of Bike Riders first converged at Conteh Street where the remains of their late colleague alleged to have been attacked, stabbed and killed by unknown arm rubbers were left unattended.  Angrily, the Bike riders then took the remains of their colleague to his resident at the Magbenteh community, informed the deceased relatives while others have already stormed the center business area of the city as well as other areas around Conteh streets where they stopped movements of other road users in protest of their colleague’s tragedy.  About 15 minutes later, the protest caught the atten...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson "Big money spending team" Bombali Shebora Football Club of Bombali defeated rivals Kholifa Stars Football Club of Tonkolili on their home turf at the Magburaka mini-stadium 1-0 on Sunday evening to continue their unbeaten run. Ace skipper and midfielder Ahmed Didat Kalokoh silence the host crowed as he netted to put his side ahead before the quarter hour mark and the visitors from Bombali kept their press for more goals mounting in the match which most sports pundits have from the time described as an inter-district derby but they faced some stiff resistance from the host defense. Kalokoh’s goal turned out as the match decider after they repeatedly frustrated all scoring efforts from their Kholifa Stars opponents mounting the ace Bombali Shebora Football Club’s goal tally to three out of seven appearances in the ongoing Northern Region Men’s Super-10 maiden edition while his team remain at the top of the championship’s log with 19 points collected fro...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson For performing admirably at the 2021-TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations finals while representing his home country, Sierra Leone’s first choice goalkeeper Mohamed Nbalie Kamara is set to be given a heroic welcome today in his home district Kambia, the Kambia District Football Association has confirmed. According to Morlai Gbla, the Public Relations Officer of the Kambia District Football Association, goalkeeper Mohamed Kamara who is expected to arrive at Bamoi Luma at 10:00am today will be received by the district’s Football family amongst others at the Mange checkpoint which is situated between the boundary areas of Port Loko and Kambia District in the Northwest region of Sierra Leone. “Kamara will be given a heroic welcome from Mange checkpoint to Bamoi Luma, Rokupr Khalizha and finally to his village, Sendugu, a village located a few miles off the Sierra Leone international market Bamoi Luma. There he will stay for a while and in the evening hours will also...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Yvonne Aki Sawyeer, the Mayor of the municipality of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown has been announced as Guest Lecturer for the 65th Public Lecture session of the University of Makeni-(UNIMAK). Scheduled to take place at the University of Makeni multipurpose auditorium, the lecturing session to be delivered by her worship Aki Sawyerr will commence at 5:00pm local time on Friday, 28th January 2022. According to one of the University’s lecturer and lead controller of the event Unisa Patrick Kamara-(UPK), the Freetown City Council Mayor will speak to UNIMAK Students plus other dignitaries on the topic: “Sierra Leone Democracy: Opportunities, Challenges and Way Forward”. Considering the vast experience of the revered Mayor in politics, governance, public networking among other walk of life, Friday event is expected to attract not only students and lectures of the university of Makeni but will also attract many others that will attend the event on site as well as...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson After being on the halt for nearly six weeks due to Leone Stars participation at the Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, the 2021-2022 Northern Region Men’s Super-10 championship has resumed on high note. A total of six goals have been scored by three different teams from all six matches played so far between January 18 and 24th. The match between Ocean Boys Football Club and Tom Football Club alone accounted for four goals with the Blue and White Boys (Ocean Boys) beating the Boys from the Makama Community (Tom) 3-1 at the Wusum Stadium while current championship leaders Bombali Shebora Football Club nailed the 2021-EBK Men’s Cup defending champions Sahid Conteh-U Football Club 2-0 at the same venue. Dogolia Football Club of Falaba, Makelleh Football Club of Fadugu,  Yoni Shooting Stars Football Club of Mile-91 and Kholifa Stars Football Club of Magburaka are yet to register any goal since the resumption of the Northern Region championship. Currently, Bombali S...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Two of the best ranked teams in Africa, Morocco and Senegal on Tuesday showed their class once again as they respectively overpowered their opponents Malawi and Cape Verde in the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations round of sixteen with well deserved victories to confirm their places in the tournament’s quarterfinals after Tunisia and Burkina Faso earned theirs. During the match between Morocco and Malawi which took place at the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, Malawi forward Gabadinho Mhango netted in the seventh minute for the Flames to put his team in front of their Moroccan counterparts whose   goalkeeper Yassine Bounou failed to stop Mhango's strike from entering the goal through the top corner. The Flames of Malawi intensified their campaign after their fast and shocking goal but just two minutes of added time to the end of the first half, The Atlas Lion's striker Yusuf En-Nesyri nodded the ball into the opponent's net f...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Models and Ballers, two amongst the most tending groups of Fashion Designers in Makeni, Northern Sierra Leone on Sunday evening surprisingly converged at the Wusum Stadium for their maiden non-violence football match, organized by Osman Tee Mansaray alias ScanTee, the founder and leader of Team StarBoy Ballers. Mansaray said the rationale behind the one day football match emerged following extensive engagements between himself and nine other members of his Ballers team one of the 15 member Associations of the Makeni Association of Ballers, approached the leaderships of the Makeni Models and Ballers Associations, and shared their vision to promote peace between the two fashion designing groups. “The outcome of our engagements is indeed huge for the progress of careers as fashion designers of Makeni that represents the largest city in the Northern, and I’m particularly happy for such a successful and very peaceful friendly match to mark our readiness to promote p...

By: Alusine Rehme Wilson Sierra Leone's senior men's team(Leone Stars) aspiration to progress to the round of sixteen of the 2021-TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations came to an abrupt end on Thursday evening at the Omnisports stadium in Limbe after bowing 1-0 to their Group-E opponent Equatorial Guinea in their crunch clash. Sierra Leone needed at least a draw against Equatorial Guinea to book a ticket to the tournament’s round of sixteen but the team guided by John Edward Keister as Head coach easily succumbed to a 1-0 defeat in the hands of Coach Juan Micha Obiang Bicogo’s men. It was in the 38th minute when midfielder Palblo Ganet capitalized from a disorganized Leone Stars defense and slotted the ball past Sierra Leone’s youngster goalkeeper Mohamed Nbalie Kamara to put his side in front. After that goal, the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone Stars picked up their shape and made several attempts to level the score but the Nzalang Nacional endured the pressure and protected their ...