A Sierra Leonean opposition supporter has gone missing after being declared “wanted” by authorities in connection with violent anti-government protests, while also facing threats from a powerful rural secret society that had previously targeted his family.
The man, identified as Mohamed F. Kamara, was a supporter of the All People’s Congress (APC), Sierra Leone’s main opposition party. He was placed on the government’s wanted list following the August 10, 2022 protests, which turned deadly and left more than 30 people dead, including civilians and police officers. Rights groups, including Amnesty International, condemned the security forces’ response, accusing them of firing live ammunition into crowds and arresting more than 500 people.
After being declared wanted, Mohamed reportedly went into hiding in Lokomasama, Karma village in Port Loko District, where his father, civil society activist Foday Kamara, had once been active. But the move offered little protection. Years earlier, Foday had openly challenged the authority of the village’s secret society, accusing its leaders of stifling education and exploiting locals. In a rare act of defiance, he set fire to the society’s shrine—an act that locals say sealed his fate.
Eyewitnesses later reported that masked men believed to be society loyalists seized Foday. His whereabouts remain unknown to this day, and no arrests were ever made. Police have consistently declined to comment.
Residents told This Day that the society declared Foday’s children “cursed and complicit” and vowed to punish them. Mohamed’s younger sister later fled the village and has since disappeared. Mohamed himself vanished soon after leaving Karma, and his whereabouts also remain unknown.
Human rights advocates say his case highlights the dual risks faced by political opponents and activists in Sierra Leone: state repression on one side and entrenched traditional power structures on the other.
“This is not an isolated incident,” Dr. Florence Ikenna, a West African political anthropologist and human rights advocate, has argued. “When individuals challenge either government or secret societies, the response is often intimidation, exile, or even death.”
Rights groups have urged Sierra Leone’s government to investigate the disappearance of Foday Kamara, the threats against his family, and the deaths during the August 2022 protests, which remain unresolved.
