Sierra Leone Telegraph: 3 October 2026:
Hundreds of millions of dollars planned investments to Sierra Leone by foreign companies, may now be at risk as the European Union (EU) this week decides to halt its financial aid to the country.
The EU’s decision comes following President Bio’s reluctance to extradite wanted Dutch fugitive – Jos Leijdekkers, who has been declared wanted by Dutch authorities after he was sentenced in absentia to 24 years in prison for cocaine trafficking and ordering a murder, by a court in Rotterdam on 25th June 2024.
Jos Leijdekkers who is known as Bolle Jos, is believed to be a key member of President Bio’s family and has become a citizen of Sierra Leone, after marrying the President’s daughter and fathering her son.
Dutch justice minister David van Weel, told the Dutch Daily De Telegraaf that the European Commission has stopped payments to Sierra Leone with immediate effect, because the government of Sierra Leone is not cooperating in the extradition of the Dutch fugitive Jos Leijdekkers.
“I am very pleased with this move. It is deeply galling that European Union funds are going to a country that refuses to cooperate with the extradition of someone like Bolle Jos,” Van Weel told the newspaper.
Earlier this year, Van Weel said that the Netherlands would try to convince the EU to halt development aid to Sierra Leone. He argued that getting Leijdekkers out of Sierra Leone was also in the West African country’s best interest.
“In our estimation, this man has an income of hundreds of millions of euros per month in a country with a gross national product lower than his income. That will naturally corrupt such a country completely,” the Minister said at the time.
The EU had allocated €325 million in development aid for Sierra Leone for 2021 to 2027.
According to the Telegraaf, Sierra Leone was set to receive another €18 million from the EU this year and €20.5 million next year, but will not now receive the remainder of this year’s aid. No decision has been made about next year’s funding.
The Netherlands hopes a further €20.5 million in 2027 can also be blocked as talks among EU member states continues.
Leijdekkers, from Breda in the southern Netherlands, has been on Dutch and Europol wanted lists since 2022. Belgian courts have added further terms, including eight years handed down in Dendermonde on May 19, 2026, over an 11-tonne shipment from Sierra Leone to the Belgian port of Antwerp.
The cargo was hidden in palm kernel meal and put at a street value of €550 million.
Responding to the EU policy shift to stop aid to Sierra Leone, the country’s ministry of information said that the government had been informed by the EU of their decision.
President Bio’s government involvement in global narcotics network is proving costly for the country’s economy and image, but it seems the extradition of coacaine baron Bolle Jos is non-negotiaable in Sierra Leone.
In response to a formal enquiry by the Fritong Post, the European Commission clarifies that budget support to Sierra Leone is “currently under assessment,” while stressing the EU’s concern about drug trafficking in Sierra Leone and the wider West African region.
“The €18 million disbursement initially foreseen for 2026 is currently under assessment and no disbursement is currently planned,” said Luca Dilda, press officer for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and the Mediterranean at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communication in Brussels.
“The management of the remaining ongoing programmes benefitting the population has been delegated to external implementing partners and is not channelled through the Government of Sierra Leone,” he added.
The puny amount involved (18 million Euros) shows how low the Sierra Leone economy has sunk under Bio. I wonder whether it’s enough to pay all the school teachers in the country. No wonder why we don’t command any respect around the world anymore.
According to some leaked statistics Bio spent over $20 million in 2022 on his escapades around the world on the pretext of trying to lure investment into the country. Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for him to spend such money to clean the streets of Freetown or meet some budget shortfall to avoid the humiliation of the EU over the refuge he has given to a drug dealer and murderer?
One thing is certain: the Dutch fugitive who has turned our country into a hub for drug traffickers will sooner or later find himself in a Dutch prison, probably together with Bio as an accomplice in his capacity as head of government and father-in -law of the Dutch fugitive. That’s why the 2028 elections already stand rigged for SLPP to hold on to power. Bio’s hope is that his hand picked successor will shield him from arrest by ICC for human rights abuses and accessory to international drug trafficking.All the toadies around him will quietly melt away.
Flexing your sovereignty muscle in defiance of foreign interference while simultaneously relying on begging bowls for national economic growth is a grotesque contradiction.
Bio and his team may huff and puff and beat their sovereignty chests for as long as they want. The fact remains that the ignominy of living under a cloud of allegations that Sierra Leone is harbouring a fugitive Dutch drug baron is a stain on our national reputation that cannot easily be erased or wished away.
Economic independence is a sine qua non of genuine political sovereignty. A nation that remains economically dependent while facing allegations of complicity in transnational drug trafficking for personal benefit risks compromising both its sovereignty and its international standing.
Ultimately, begging bowls and alleged complicity in transnational crime do not amount to sovereignty. They amount to selling Sierra Leone down the river.