News stories by Mohamed Fofanah

FREETOWN, Jul 30 (IPS) - Last week, Sierra Leone's parliament voted to repeal the country's 55-year-old libel law, which criminalised the publication of information that was deemed defamatory or seditious, and which had been used by successive governments to target and imprison media practitioners and silence dissenting views. But not everyone is convinced it was in the best interest of media freedom.

KENEMA, Sierra Leone, Jul 12 (IPS) - Adikali Kamara is a 36-year-old student nurse working in the government hospital in Kenema, a sprawling town on the fringe of the Sierra Leone's Gola tropical rain forest.

FREETOWN, Nov 06 (IPS) - Only 38 women - of a total of 586 candidates - will contest parliamentary seats in Sierra Leone's November elections, and the blame for this can be laid squarely on the shoulders of the current group of female lawmakers, according to Barbara Bangura, the director of the women's organisation Grassroots Empowerment for Self Reliance.

In Sierra Leone’s highly patriarchal society, where institutionalised gender inequalities are exacerbated by discriminatory customs, one group is singing it’s way towards changing this.

He was all over the place during the 2008 local council election campaign, but no one's seen the councillor since he won his seat, says Freetown journalist Ismael Bakarr. 'He just disappeared.'

The re-establishment of local councils in Sierra Leone in 2004 was intended to give people a greater voice in their government, reversing long years of marginalisation for rural districts in particular. But nearly seven years later, it has still not been fully implemented. A local NGO, Campaign for the Voiceless, is working to strengthen the performance of this most accessible tier of government.

On Apr. 5, the United Nations Children's Fund will launch a report on teenage pregnancy in Sierra Leone. Teenage pregnancies account for 40 percent of maternal deaths in the country, and the report comes as public health authorities recalibrate strategy to address a problem that endangers both mothers and children.

Lucky for Osman Conteh that one of his aunts disagreed with the family consensus that he had been stricken by an evil spirit. She insisted the twitching, incoherently babbling child be taken to the hospital rather than a witch doctor.

'I think I am successful now,' says Fanta Jabbah. 'I am able to take care of my three children and support my husband; now I have a say in my household.'

Marie Musa, 37, is devastated. After the mother of four gave premature birth, her baby boy died a few hours later — because the hospital did not have enough incubators to rescue the infant.