SHALIMAR MAFIA STRANGLES SIERRA LEONE
…From Dubious Monopoly to Capturing Military Barracks
By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
The betrayal of Sierra Leone’s sovereignty deepens as fresh revelations expose how the country’s military leadership under the current Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has turned a blind eye—if not outright complicit—in the secret sale of barracks land to Lebanese cartels, while mercilessly demolishing the homes of ordinary citizens.
Earlier this year, the same military that sold off huge portions of Goderich and Wellington Barracks to Shalimar Trading Company and their Lebanese associates, sent bulldozers into Kingtom, flattening structures belonging to struggling Sierra Leoneans. And here’s the irony—those Kingtom properties were not even constructed inside a military barracks.
This hypocrisy has enraged citizens: why does the military unleash raw power against powerless citizens, but quietly bends over for foreign profiteers who carve up sacred military land like private estates?
At Goderich Barracks, soldiers and their families now watch as the once-proud land of the Republic is carved into private restaurants, shops, and soon, even the last car park. At Wellington Barracks, Shalimar has already erected commercial structures, rented out for 2 billion old leones apiece, with no trace of taxes being paid, and no benefits to the rank-and-file soldiers who live in squalor nearby.
Instead of building promised living quarters for soldiers, Shalimar and their military enablers have lined their pockets, leaving the men and women who defend this nation to rot in collapsing houses.
Even more disturbing is Shalimar’s tightening chokehold on Sierra Leone’s economy. Beyond grabbing military land, the Lebanese mafia has illegally monopolized the importation of TVS motorcycles and tricycles (kekehs).
Through shady political deals and muscle tactics, Shalimar has strangled competition and silenced would-be rivals—including Sierra Leonean entrepreneurs who sought to set up assembly plants that could have created thousands of jobs. Instead, a foreign cartel dictates the market, inflates prices, and uses the police as private enforcers.
This monopoly not only violates the principles of a free market economy but also undermines Sierra Leone’s sovereignty—turning citizens into permanent consumers at the mercy of foreign profiteers.
Meanwhile, Parliament—which should be the last line of accountability—remains suspiciously silent. Investigations into these scandals have stalled, and insiders whisper of MPs pocketing “brown envelopes” to keep their mouths shut.
A retired army officer did not mince his words:
“Our leaders are selling the country in broad daylight. Military land today, the nation tomorrow. Soon our soldiers will be renting parade grounds from foreigners.”
The truth is bitter: while citizens are bulldozed in Kingtom, while soldiers languish in dilapidated barracks, foreign mafias are gifted prime national assets. The military, once the shield of the nation, now appears as a broker of betrayal.
Sierra Leone is bleeding—not just from poverty, corruption, and bad governance, but from the outright sale of its soul. If unchecked, we risk becoming tenants in our own land, ruled by foreign cartels backed by compromised leaders.
The question remains: how much more of Sierra Leone is up for sale?