Sierra Leone Telegraph: 10 June 2026:
Beyond the sad fact that President Julius Maada Bio and his SLPP government have brought shame and suffering to the poor people of Sierra Leone who are ranked one of the poorest in the world, in a country that has no business being poor – given its vast natural resources, the involvement of the President’s family in the global cocaine trade is now the subject of European economic sanctions against Sierra Leone.
Writing in a letter to the European Commission, the leader of the Dutch Members of European Parliament – Malik Azmani MEP, is calling for EU funding to Sierra Leone to be stopped.
He wants the Commission to: “Persuade Sierra Leone to extradite drug criminals to EU Member States, and to use the suspension possibility under NDICI-Global Europe as leverage for this purpose; and make the horizontal sanctions regime against transnational organized crime, as announced in the Commission’s work program, operational.”
Other European countries such as Spain, Italy, Denmark, Ireland, Germany and the United Kingdom may soon join the call for sanctions against Sierra Leone if President Bio does not extradite Bole Jos and close the global cocaine hub that operates in the country.
“Subject: Sierra Leone as a cocaine transit country and safe haven for criminals convicted in the EU
Brussels, 05/06/2026
To the attention of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy / Vice-President of the European Commission, Kaja Kallas
To the attention of Jozef Síkela, European Commissioner for International Partnerships
Sierra Leone functions as a logistics hub for cocaine heading toward the European market and simultaneously offers a safe haven where EU fugitives can evade justice in EU Member States. Bilateral and EU diplomatic contacts have so far yielded no extraditions. The Commission has two instruments available to counter this:
- Suspension of development cooperation funds under the NDICI-Global Europe instrument;
- Establishment of a sanctions regime against transnational organized crime.
Neither of the two is currently being used, while the scale of the problem warrants it. The Global Organized Crime Index identifies Sierra Leone as one of the primary West African transit countries for cocaine to Europe.
The legal basis for extradition already exists. Sierra Leone is a party to the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, including Article 16 on extradition. However, since ratification, Sierra Leone has not implemented this obligation toward EU Member States with a prosecution interest.
Promises were also made at the political level. During the EU-Sierra Leone Political Partnership Dialogue on 16 December 2025, chaired by President Bio, both parties agreed to step up cooperation in combating drug trafficking and transnational organized crime. Five months later, Spanish police intercepted 30 tons of cocaine on a ship departing from Freetown.
The EU has a financial leverage tool but does not use it. The EU has allocated €352 million for the period 2021-2027 to Sierra Leone and the country also benefits from regional and cross-border cooperation programs. No specific conditions regarding cooperation in international legal assistance are attached to these funding streams. The general suspension possibility in the NDICI Regulation has not been used for this so far.
The sanctions instrument that should close this gap is included in the Commission’s work program: the Commission has committed to strengthening the legal framework against organized crime. As long as this framework is not operational, the EU does not have an autonomous instrument to target individual facilitators.
We therefore call on the Commission to:
– Persuade Sierra Leone to extradite drug criminals to EU Member States, and to use the suspension possibility under NDICI-Global Europe as leverage for this purpose.
– Make the horizontal sanctions regime against transnational organized crime, as announced in the Commission’s work program, operational.”
Yesterday the response of the government of Sierra Leone through the country’s information minister – Chernor Bah and its chief minister – David Sengeh, was to feign stupidity and bravado, by accusing news media of peddling fake news.
It is time for regime change in Sierra Leone.
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