By Abdul Kamara

In a nation gripped by a deadly drug epidemic that has claimed hundreds of young lives, the Ministry of Local Government and the Freetown City Council (FCC) have found themselves at odds, not over how to prevent further deaths, but over who has the authority to collect the bodies.

On October 9, 2025, the Ministry of Local Government and Community Affairs, through its Permanent Secretary, Bai M. Tharay, issued a stern letter to Freetown’s Mayor, Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr demanding evidence for her public statement that “as of October 7, the Council had collected 220 bodies linked to Kush intake within the city.”

The Ministry described her remarks as “misleading and injurious to the integrity of national institutions,” warning that such claims could incite public fear and undermine the government’s anti-drug campaign under the Presidential Taskforce on substance abuse. The letter requested a full breakdown of the deaths, including names, dates, locations, and medical proof linking them to Kush.

However, the Ministry’s tone revealed more than concern for accuracy, it reflected the growing institutional tension between the central government and the FCC.

Mayor Aki-Sawyerr, in her response dated October 20, 2025, provided a detailed spreadsheet of all 220 corpses collected between January and October 2025, complete with dates, burial sites, and photographic evidence. She noted that, out of respect for grieving families, only photos of unclaimed bodies would be shared publicly.

The Mayor went further to highlight a disturbing trend: between 2020 and 2023, the FCC typically collected fewer than 50 unclaimed bodies each year. But since 2024, that number has skyrocketed to over 200 annually, most of them young men suspected of Kush-related deaths.

She disclosed that she had already raised the alarm in a letter to the Minister of Internal Affairs and copied the Ministry of Local Government back in September 2025, yet received no concrete response. Her closing words were as chilling as they were symbolic: “In light of your concerns about the source of our authority, Freetown City Council will no longer collect corpses sighted on the streets. Please provide contact details of who we should report to when a corpse is found.”

The Mayor’s statement underscored the bitter reality of bureaucratic disputes overshadowing humanitarian urgency.

Despite President Julius Maada Bio declaring the Kush epidemic a national emergency in 2024, progress remains slow and fragmented. While government ministries debate procedure, young people continue to die in alarming numbers across the country.

Many citizens now question whether the Ministry’s demand for evidence was a quest for truth, or an attempt to control the narrative and avoid political embarrassment over grim statistics.

Meanwhile, the judiciary’s silence on drug-related prosecutions only deepens public frustration. Arrests are often announced with fanfare but quietly forgotten without convictions, leaving traffickers free and victims abandoned.

The Kush crisis has evolved beyond a health emergency. It now represents a moral and leadership test for Sierra Leone’s institutions. The fight requires unity, empathy, and swift action, not letter exchanges and territorial battles.

As the Ministry and the FCC argue over who should collect the dead, the living continue to suffer, addicted, unemployed, and hopeless.

Sierra Leone’s youth are dying faster than the government can respond. Until leaders choose compassion over control and cooperation over competition, the fight against Kush will remain not just a war on drugs, but a war against the nation’s own neglect.