By Alusine A. Sesay
The Sierra Leone Police issued a press statement yesterday, 22nd July 2025, regarding the arrival of a vessel at Beach One in Hamilton, manned by three Filipino crew members.
According to the police’s maritime division, a “thorough search” of the vessel was conducted, and, unsurprisingly, they declared: “Nothing of police interest or security concern was discovered.”
They further explained that “the vessel drifted onto the coastline as a result of engine failure.”
That explanation sounds strangely familiar. But let’s hold that thought for a moment.
Cast your minds back to earlier this year. precisely on 20th January 2025, when another police press release surfaced regarding a vessel at Yenkain Beach in the Black Johnson community. Once again, the police reported: “Nothing of police interest or security concern was discovered.”
And their explanation? You guessed it: “the vessel drifted onto the coastline as a result of engine failure.”
In that January incident, the police also assured the public that “any additional updates in respect of the outcome of the police investigations” would be communicated in due course.
It’s now over six months later, and the nation still awaits these promised updates.
Perhaps the operative phrase was “any additional.”
Presumably, there were no “additional” findings, and thus, no further communication was deemed necessary. How very convenient.
Now, let’s return to yesterday’s vessel. On ANOTHER video, A bystander’s voice, captured and, can be heard alleging that just as key figures from the police, the army, and local community leadership were preparing to conduct their initial inspection of the vessel, they were abruptly ordered, via a stern and swift “directive from above”, to cease all efforts immediately.
One wonders: why? Could it be an anxiety over what might be uncovered? Perhaps several kilograms of cocaine or other illicit cargo?
It also strains credulity for the police to plead ignorance of the vessel’s origins, especially given that it bears a Sierra Leonean flag at its stern.
This is not merely decorative, is it? It’s what is known as a “flag of convenience.” This suggests the vessel was registered in Sierra Leone rather than in the shipowner’s country of residence or nationality,most likely to exploit Sierra Leone’s notoriously lax maritime regulations.
Surely the Sierra Leone Police ought to have access to its own maritime registry records to trace the vessel’s ownership and identify the country of origin.
There is, however, another unsettling pattern: why do these “stranded” vessels never appear in the territorial waters of Guinea, Liberia, or any other West African state? Why do they so reliably find themselves “drifting”, by sheer misfortune, no doubt, into Sierra Leone’s jurisdiction?
The same implausible explanation was advanced for the vessel intercepted on January 20th, 2025: engine failure, loss of direction.
Why is this narrative recycled so often?
Even more disconcerting is that this phenomenon is not limited to maritime traffic. Consider the mysterious aircraft intercepted at Lungi Airport not long ago, officially described as “stranded” after somehow meandering from Liberia into Sierra Leonean airspace.
Or take the helicopter several months ago, that appeared, as if by magic, at Hastings Airfield -again allegedly “stranded.”
Surely, the pattern is clear? This is less a string of coincidences than a well-rehearsed script: “stranded,” “lost track,” “engine failure.”
There is undeniably more to these curious maritime and aerial incursions than the public is being told if you ask me.
Sierra Leone’s reputation as a cocaine transit hub for West Africa is already badly tarnished. This is not a distinction any nation should aspire to, or tolerate.
