Ernest Bai Koroma returns after treason case dropped

Former Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma returned home on Sunday after authorities dropped treason charges against him over an alleged coup attempt.

Koroma arrived at the international airport in Freetown accompanied by Nigerian former president Olusegun Obasanjo and Nigerian Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu. Sierra Leone Foreign Minister Mohamed Rahman Swarray and officials from Koroma's opposition All People's Congress welcomed him.

“Today I have come back home and I'm happy,” Koroma told journalists.

Koroma, who led Sierra Leone from 2007 to 2018, left for Nigeria in 2024, days after being charged with treason and other offences over a deadly 2023 army uprising. He had been cleared to travel for three months for medical treatment but stayed for more than two years.

Sierra Leone's justice ministry said in July that it had dropped the charges, without giving a reason.

The case dated to November 2023, when armed attackers stormed a military armoury, two barracks, two prisons and two police stations and clashed with security forces. Twenty-one people were killed in what authorities described as a coup attempt.

A military court sentenced two dozen soldiers and Koroma's former bodyguard to prison terms ranging from 50 to 100 years for their alleged roles in the mutiny. Sierra Leone is due to hold presidential elections in 2028.