Moualim Nabe, who is reportedly currently incarcerated in a detention facility in the United States of America, will become a destitute and homeless person if he returns to Sierra Leone as he has no known relatives in the country that can be traced. Investigations carried out by this newspaper indicate that Moualim Nabe, who travelled to the USA at the age of three, has lost touch with everything Sierra Leonean. So, any attempts to bring him back to Sierra Leone will be tantamount to condemning him to a life of tremendous suffering, possibly slow death, and a pauper’s funeral as he has nobody to either care for him or give him a decent funeral if he dies.
Currently, the situation in Sierra Leone is so deplorable and toxic that many citizens are not only feeling unsafe and want to flee the country but believe that the nation is sitting on a keg of dynamite. The United States’ Department of State in its “2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Sierra Leone” notes that there are significant human rights issues which “… included credible reports of arbitrary or unlawful killings; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest or detention; political prisoners or detainees; substantial interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly; serious government corruption; extensive gender-based violence, including domestic or intimate partner violence….”
And to compound the bleak situation in Sierra Leone, the online edition of Africa Confidential of 7 February 2025 (Vol. 66 – N° 3) claimed that, “One of Europe’s most wanted criminals, convicted Dutch cocaine kingpin Jos Leijdekkers or ‘Bolle Jos’ (‘Fat Jos’ in Dutch), is the partner of one of President Julius Maada Bio’s daughters and has transferred his operations to Freetown. According to the report, “the Dutchman took over Sierra Leone’s existing cocaine smuggling network, and, deploying enormous bribes, recruited members of the country’s national security infrastructure to provide logistical and security services”.
Added to that, the health system in Sierra Leone is not anything to write home about. The healthcare system faces challenges including neglect, underfunding, and the impact of epidemics such as Ebola and COVID-19. A recent assessment of rural health facilities revealed alarming conditions in 44 facilities across six districts. Historically, the healthcare system in Sierra Leone has been marked by periods of neglect and damage due to conflicts and corruption.
So, with the bleak and toxic situation in the country, sending Moualim Nabe back to Sierra Leone where he doesn’t have any known relatives might lead him to depression which might likely lead to him develop mental health issues.