Sierra Leone’s former president, Ernest Bai Koroma, has left the country for medical treatment in Nigeria, despite facing charges of treason for his alleged role in a coup attempt last year.
The High Court granted Koroma permission to leave on Wednesday for a maximum of three months. The current president, Julius Maada Bio, has called this a “humanitarian gesture.” However, many believe that a deal has been struck allowing Koroma to go into exile in Nigeria. His treason trial is scheduled to begin in March.
Koroma led Sierra Leone for 11 years until 2018, when Bio was elected. A Nigerian presidential jet carrying the former president was seen leaving Freetown International Airport on Friday afternoon.
Unnamed sources from the United Nations and Ecowas, a bloc of West African countries, have told the BBC that Ecowas had brokered a deal for Koroma to go into exile in Nigeria if the charges were dropped to ease tension following the November unrest.
The November attack saw armed assailants storm a military barracks and prisons, freeing around 2,000 inmates, the authorities said. At least 21 people were killed in the violence. The government said this amounted to an attempt to overthrow it, and in subsequent weeks more than 80 people were arrested as suspects – many of them belonging to Sierra Leone’s military.
The former president’s daughter, Dankay Koroma, has previously been named on a list of suspects wanted by police investigating the failed coup. She has not commented.
The attempted coup came five months after a disputed election which saw President Bio narrowly re-elected for a second term. The results were rejected by Koroma’s All People’s Congress. International observers also criticised the elections, highlighting a lack of transparency in the count.
Koroma’s departure for medical treatment in Nigeria is likely to raise further questions about the stability of Sierra Leone’s political landscape. The treason charges against him, and the allegations of a deal for exile, cast a shadow over the country’s recent history and its uncertain future.