Freetown Mayor Raises Alarm Over Rising Street Deaths Linked to Kush

On Monday, 18 August 2025, Freetown Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr expressed deep concern over the increasing number of corpses discovered on the streets of Sierra Leone’s capital, a situation she described as the “normalization of the abnormal.”

Speaking in an interview with Liberty Online TV, Aki-Sawyerr revealed that as of that date, Freetown City Council staff had collected 128 bodies from public areas. While she did not specify the direct causes of death, she linked the growing crisis to the widespread abuse of “kush,” a synthetic drug that has gained popularity among Sierra Leonean youth.

The mayor urged the government to show stronger political will in addressing the problem by focusing on disrupting the drug’s supply chain. In a two-videos shared on her X (formerly Twitter) account, she called for urgent measures to curb the availability of kush, warning that failure to act decisively could further endanger young people and destabilize communities.

Her statement comes amid growing public concern over drug-related deaths and the broader impact of kush on health, security, and social stability. National authorities have previously announced anti-drug campaigns, but critics argue that enforcement efforts remain insufficient to curb distribution and trafficking.