Josef Skrdlik

Sep 5, 2024 | africa-confidential.com | Josef Skrdlik

PREVIEW The Anti-Corruption Commission has opened an investigation into Africa Confidential’s report on the failed campus project as public anger grows Sierra Leone’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) announced on 27 August that ‘after a careful review of’ Africa Confidential’s special report on how the University of Sierra Leone (USL) lost $4.5 million to Nigeria’s Femab Properties in obscure dealings, it has ‘commenced a forensic examination of allegations of corruption’.

May 27, 2024 | news.mongabay.com | Josef Skrdlik

Sierra Leone’s fish stocks have been under severe strain in recent years due to intensive industrial fishing and a growing population of artisanal fishers, with fishers consistently reporting falling catches. This has triggered heightened competition for increasingly scarce yields. To secure their livelihoods, artisanal fishers have turned to unsustainable fishing gear, such as undersize-mesh nets, and target fish breeding and nursery grounds, disrupting the fish reproductive cycle.

Jan 5, 2024 | occrp.org | Josef Skrdlik

Guinea’s Minister of Justice has ordered legal proceedings against four government officials over an alleged illegal export of hundreds of containers of critically endangered West African rosewood to China, said a note addressed to the Guinean Attorney General. The note from Minister Alphonse Charles Wright cites allegations concerning illegal logging, violating timber trade regulations, corrupting public officials, public funds embezzlement and forgery.

Aug 30, 2023 | occrp.org | Josef Skrdlik

New evidence collected by OCCRP indicates that two Chinese trawlers were fishing in Sierra Leone’s marine protected areas, where industrial fishing is forbidden for their unique biodiversity and vital role in sustaining the ocean ecosystem. Witnesses claim these trawlers can be seen fishing in the protected zone almost every day with authorities not even trying to stop them.

Jun 16, 2023 | occrp.org | Josef Skrdlik

Authorities in Sierra Leone claim that measures to keep better track of fishing vessels have stopped industrial trawlers from intruding into waters reserved for artisanal fishermen. But video recordings and fishermen’s testimonies suggest their efforts are still falling short. On an early April morning, Senesi Koka, from a small fishing settlement on the remote Sherbro Island off the southwestern coast of Sierra Leone, set out to sea with three fellow fishermen in his wooden canoe.