Most leaders of the attacks on Sierra Leone’s military barracks and prisons arrested as curfew eases

BY CHINEDU ASADU

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — Sierra Leone’s president said most leaders of attacks on the nation’s main military barracks and prisons had been arrested and normalcy had returned across the country after a 24-hour curfew was relaxed to a dusk-to-dawn lockdown.

The attacks early Sunday morning surprised residents and security forces in the West African nation and raised fears of a possible coup in a troubled region.

But “most of the leaders” of the attacks now have been arrested and “calm has been restored,” President Julius Maada Bio said in a Sunday night address.

Residents in the capital city of Freetown were awoken by sounds of heavy gunfire as gunmen tried to break into the key armory in the country’s largest military barracks, located near the presidential villa.

They engaged in sustained gunfire with security forces and targeted major detention centers – including the central prison holding more