The News Review:

- Former Bank of S/Leone Gov Joins Nigeria’s Heir Alliance
- Tracing Services Connect Virginia Man With Family in War-Torn Africa
- Ambassador Saccoh, Please Keep Quiet!

Former Bank of S/Leone Gov Joins Nigeria’s Heir Alliance
This Day – This Day (subscription) – Jul 28, 2004
In 1998, it would be recalled, all macro-economic fundamentals were dismal and chronically pathetic, rendering the Sierra Leonean economy the worst performer in the Ecowas sub-region for almost a decade: inflation was in the upper forties, a bag of rice was around 50,000 leones and the exchange rate hovered around 30,000 to the US dollar. All of that rot and despondence was changed within the first two years. By 2000, the Bank of Sierra Leone itself, as a corporate entity, was not only completely rehabilitated, the 25-year old tower completed and immaculately furnished, but the bank also became a model institution within the sub-region in both corporate structure and monetary policy thrust, equipped with computer and language laboratories, an enviable corps of technical and managerial resource back-up and a proud and highly motivated staff. The period also witnessed the largest growth of wealth creating financial institutions in the economy in recent history. By the end-2002, there was a complete turn-around, thanks, in large measure, to sound monetary policy; the economy was not only the best performer in the sub-region by meeting four out of five WAMI macro-economic integration performance criteria, but, to most Sierra Leoneans, there were visible signs of a bright light at the end of the tunnel. By then the economy was gearing for a sustainable take-off. Inflation was a negative 1.

Tracing Services Connect Virginia Man With Family in War-Torn Africa
Red Cross – Jul 28, 2004
orgWednesday, July 28, 2004 — On July 3, 2004, Samuel Mansaray got a long-awaited phone call that changed his life. Thanks to the efforts of the American and Sierra Leone Red Cross Societies, he learned that his wife and two daughters back home in Sierra Leone were alive and well, after more than three years of separation and uncertainty caused by a devastating civil war. When they found my family, I just had to put down the phone, said Mansaray. I was so excited, I was so upset. It took me some time to get my composure back. Mansaray came to the United States in 2000 after winning a green card lottery, and planned to bring his wife Marian and daughters Sarah and Samuela over to join him when he was financially stable, but time was working against him a bloody civil war was spreading across Sierra Leone, and he hoped to give his family a chance to escape before things got worse.

Ambassador Saccoh, Please Keep Quiet!
Free with registration – Asia Africa Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Jul 28, 2004
I was in the company of M. Lansana Sy Savane, a Guinean Producer, and Ben Douda Sow of Lynx Newspaper in Conakry. The motive of our visit at the time was to get the reaction of the Sierra Leone Embassy over the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment in Kissidougou of a group of Sierra Leonean refugees allegedly involved in a riot that resulted to the death of a Guinean Army recruit at the Kountaya Refugee Camp in the far south of Guinea. Sadly, Embassy officials at Bellevue took us aback. Behold, Ambassador Saccoh was confident in responding that the Embassy was unaware of the incident.