By Abdul Kamara

Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr has sounded an urgent alarm over what she describes as a worsening national tragedy, revealing that the Freetown City Council has recovered 220 unclaimed bodies from the streets between January and October 2025. The shocking figure, she said, underscores the devastating impact of the Kush drug epidemic sweeping through the capital.

Speaking during a live interview on Truth FM’s Morning Devotion program at Hill Cut Studios, the mayor described the situation as “totally unacceptable and abnormal,” calling it a national crisis that requires immediate and united action. “As of today, 7th October, we have picked up 220 bodies across Freetown,” she said.

According to the Mayor, most of these deaths are believed to be linked to the widespread abuse of Kush, a synthetic drug that has taken hold of young people across Sierra Leone. She dispelled the misconception that Kush users are only idle youths, pointing out that many victims are educated and employed. “There is a false narrative about people who take Kush. These are university students, workers, and professionals who are hooked,” Aki-Sawyerr said.

She expressed deep concern over the growing indifference of the public to the crisis, warning that complacency is normalizing tragedy. “One of the things that trouble me the most is the attitude and behavior of Freetonians. The normalization of the abnormal should concern us all,” she emphasized.

Aki-Sawyerr clarified that the 220 bodies represent only those left unclaimed or unidentified on the streets and do not reflect the total number of deaths in Freetown. “We do not do postmortems on these bodies. How do we know if some foul play is not taking place? We continue to pick up corpses, which is neither our mandate nor do we have resources for that, but we do it anyway,” she said.

The Mayor revealed the financial strain the council faces in handling such emergencies, noting that the city’s 2025 social welfare budget stands at just NLe123,266. “If we are to provide services for people affected by Kush, we would have a minimal NLe500 per person. What can that do?” she asked.

Calling for a coordinated national response, she urged stronger law enforcement and more aggressive efforts to disrupt the drug supply chain. “We need to see daily raids. To the best of our knowledge, we allegedly have the most wanted drug lord in our city,” she said. “We have to break the supply chain. The situation demands a drastic response if the political will is there.”

She also criticized misplaced national priorities, saying that development efforts such as the government’s “Feed Salone” initiative would be meaningless if citizens continued to die from drug abuse. “You cannot implement Feed Salone if the people you wish to feed are dead,” she said bluntly.

Beyond the drug crisis, Aki-Sawyerr highlighted broader challenges in managing the city, revealing that of the projected NLe77 billion in council revenue for 2025, only half has been collected. She noted that the council spends NLe2 billion annually on electricity and NLe80 million each week on sanitation and vehicle operations.

Meanwhile, the Mayor commended the introduction of a digital property rate system and drone mapping, which has improved revenue collection and urban planning. However, she lamented that almost half of Freetown remains inaccessible due to unplanned construction. “Forty-five to fifty percent of the city has no access roads because people have built everywhere. Council can do nothing about it since building permits are in the hands of the Ministry of Lands,” she explained.

She further revealed that land access issues have stalled several major projects, including World Bank-funded initiatives to build 121 public toilets and a $20 million landfill site at Hastings. “We have the resources, but we couldn’t get the land to do that,” she said.

Concluding her remarks, Mayor Aki-Sawyerr called for unity in governance, warning that institutional divisions only worsen service delivery. “The services are mainly government-provided. Dividing government will not improve services,” she cautioned.

As Freetown grapples with the Kush epidemic and long-standing urban challenges, the Mayor’s message was clear, the city is in crisis, and only collective resolve and decisive leadership can begin to turn the tide.