By Amin Kef Sesay
On the 22 July 2020, Major Yayah Brima of the Ministry of Defence made it known that last week the Government and NACOVERC approved the payment of risk allowance to all military personnel. He stated that with effect from July 2020, each and every soldier will indefinitely receive the sum of Three Hundred Thousand Leones as his or her risk allowance.
According to him, the payment of the said allowance is a true indication of the Government’s appreciation of RSLAF assiduous efforts in containing the Corona Viral Disease (COVID), which has claimed the lives of exactly 66 people as at 22 July 2020. He said unlike the Ebola Viral Disease (EVD), COVID-19 has not claimed the life of any military personnel although a good number of personnel earlier became infected with the virus but they all later recovered.
Major Yayah Brima stated that the RSLAF commitment in the fight against an epidemic was first spotted during the EVD outbreak between 2014 and 2016. He said without any risk allowance spread to the rank and file, the RSLAF personnel laid their lives to defeat the contagious disease. Out of nearly 4,000 deaths nationwide, the RSLAF incurred, at least, 16 deaths in the line of duty.
Like the 1991 Rebel War, he continued, the EVD Operation (known as ‘Operation Octopus’) was a baptism of fire for the military. “Nevertheless, RSLAF played crucial role in containing the pandemic. Apart from its security responsibility at the various isolation and treatment centres amidst several attacks on those centres by aggrieved youths, RSLAF contributed over Four Hundred Million Leones to the EVD Basket Fund,” he disclosed.
The Major intimated that the RSLAF undertook the arduous task to establish isolation and treatment facilities across the country. In rains the RSLAF engineer personnel carried out the construction work day and night and completed all the facilities within four weeks.
“Moreover, while some health workers were retreating from the ‘battlefield’, RSLAF was reinforcing its medical personnel to the deserted isolation and treatment centres to treat the dying EVD patients. With the establishment of its own isolation and treatment facility at the 34 Military Hospital (which was exclusively manned by its medical personnel), RSLAF gave hope and assurance to the public of defeating the pandemic. Within a month, the RSLAF treatment facility accounted for the highest discharges of EVD patients,” he hailed the military.
He further revealed that at the initial stage safe and dignified burial of EVD patients became a serious challenge. “Bereaved families were, sometimes, violent due to the improper funeral rites of their relatives. At some point, the infection rate was also attributed to the unsafe burial methods. When RSLAF took over the management structure, the entire narrative changed,” he lauded the efforts of the army.
He said, hence, with no risk allowance given to the rank and file during the EVD operation, RSLAF successfully carried out its constitutional responsibility contemplated in Section 165 (2) of the Constitution of Sierra Leone Act No.6 of 1991.
“Truly speaking, for the information of this Government, the rank and file of the RSLAF are pleased with the approval of the risk allowance in respect of the COVID operation. Every military personnel has been energised and is looking forward to another approval – the Terms and Conditions of Service (TACOS), which has been put aside since 2007,” Major Yayah Brima concluded and appealed.
