Transcripts For BBCNEWS Mayor 20240704

We wont be able to stay in this. Im here with about 20 people, including my daughter. We need help. My city, freetown, nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and a mountain range. The natural landscape is beautiful. But i think freetonians are beautiful, too. People who deserve a lot more than theyre getting. Weve had war. Weve had corruption. And then we had ebola. Now were fighting for democratic freedoms. Ive been mayor of freetown for the past five years, during which time my party has been in opposition. I promised i would work to Transform Freetown. I know i can do more because ive spent five years with my hands tied behind my back, with investigation after investigation. And the government is the one that took me to the acc, Anti Corruption commission, to parliament, did a special audit. My tenure has been marked with probably the highest level of intimidation and harassment that any politician in recent years has experienced. Then youre aware that tomorrow you will be on the stand . Yes. As the first witness. Yes. In yourcase. Yeah. All right. You remember the charges . I do. Disorderly behaviour and obstructing police duty. Obstructing police duties. I was just about to board a flight with my councillor. I am here with the police. I am going to ask why my councillor is not being allowed to come on this flight. I believe he should be on this flight. Is this how we operate in sierra leone now . I mean, its ridiculous for me to be in court over a facebook live, even if, hypothetically, i raised my voice. Its, its. It feels really disproportionate. It is your time to put the record straight as to what happened according to you. So, be calm, dont get agitated, and, arm, dont get upset, 0k . My sister was told by someone. And thats exactly what theyve done. If youre busy, you cant work. The rest of my time was with lawyers, with this case, with that case. And i think thats what they want. I feel like a hunted animal. Like, literally, ifeel like im a rabbit and the foxes are after me. As mayor, the first three years were kind of 0k. There was cooperation with the government, but in response to me speaking out against things that i felt were wrong and things that i felt were not in the interests of the country, i came under enormous attack. Weve seen, in a cross examination, no elements have been proven. At least there has been a derailment in the course of proofing of their case. But its a political case, we will say. It is a case to undo the nerves of the mayor and then get her distracted. She is my sister. I am one year, 11 months older than she is. Its painful to see somebody who you know, or you havel known your whole life, has stood up for right, | who fights for the truth. And to see her put in the position like this| is actually very frustrating, very challenging. This day has finally come the day that yvonne takes the stand. We thank you, father god, because our hope and our faith and our trust is not in man. She sobs there was no facts left that we were born sierra leonian. Were not going to change yvonne from who she is. I were going to use who she is to whip this nation. Amen. To see your vision. Our nation will rise again. We pray this, believing this, | in the mighty, most precious name ofjesus. Amen. She sobs the cost, from a family perspective, has been really high. For keith, for the kids, for my parents and my siblings. And so there are moments like that where, i guess. You know, Family Members would feel like, is it really worth it . The fact that they agreed to support me, the fact that they choose to support me, doesnt mean its easy for them. We lived in the uk since the late � 80s. My husband actually was born in the uk. I was living in london, working in finance. Living a relatively normal family life. And, in may 2014, ebola struck. Reporter it is one of the worlds deadliest viruses. The latest outbreak and spread from here in guinea to neighbouring sierra leone is causing alarm. The Fatality Rate can reach up to 90 . I remember like yesterday watching that on tv. I made a decision then that id need to come and play whatever part i could. That decision clearly was going to impact my family. I had a conversation with my husband first and said, i cant be here watching this unfold. I have to be in freetown. And his response was, i know. I understand. Go. And with us is yvonne aki sawyerr, whos originally from sierra leone and hopes to go back there to help out. What do you hope to achieve . What the group that im working with are seeking to do is to encourage people to actually be part of that response, to go back to sierra leone. I came to freetown that november on a very empty plane. My son, who is 23 now and was 14 then, he was one who took it really badly, saying, i dont want you to die, and just sobbing. And that was tough. What started as a three month Volunteering Stint ended up being nearly ten years. And im still here. Why am i saying all this . Because the, the journey to, to this seat, the journey to where our familys found itself, its not been easy. The fact that they agreed to support me doesnt mean they dont miss me. Doesnt mean they dont feel the gap of not having their mother with them. My team, my army, my people, my heart. I did think today that, gosh, im going to be putting this on again maybe never, depending on the election outcomes, but its been a good inning. I did think today that, gosh, im going to be putting this on again maybe never, depending on the election outcomes, but its been a good inning. And, like i was saying in there, im kind of already in campaign mode, so. She laughs yeah. Well, yeah, lets, lets get on with it. Reporter now the candidates to contest the election in sierra leone injune have been confirmed. | ive been the mayor of freetown. I have started a journey that im determined to continue. Im running for mayor. She failed me. She burnt us. Five years i have nothing to show for. What we need is water supply, clean freetown sanitation, Proper Health facilities. Women are not getting a good deal in this country. Theyre not contributing to development in the manner in which they can do, which would transform our nation. And im looking for the support of all freetonians. Thank you very much. Its been a pleasure. My party, the apc, is one of the two main Political Parties in sierra leone. The other party, the slpp, has been in government for the past five years. In my first term as mayor, i tried to work with the government, but they rejected me. So i need the apc to win this president ial election because i need a National Government that stands around and under the local governments, including freetown. Its like, its happening, its happening, its happening. Its been, you know, for the teams, for him, its been a long journey. Really exciting. Really, really, really exciting. Were launching our Election Campaign with a huge convoy through the streets. The atmosphere, the energy crazy, crazy. People on their balconies, on their roofs, you know, old women waving. Kids running along with the trailer. In the midst of the madness of the convoy, i got a call. My driver, who took a different route to us, has been beaten up. He was beaten, i understand, because my car had the picture of Samura Kamara on it. But not only was he beaten. What im deeply concerned about is that my laptop was taken from my car. Radio crackles stations tune in and out reporter some are being flown out from an airstrip near khartoum. Others have been leaving the capital by road, heading north. Politics is not a very decent game. Theres so much violence that you cannot just relax when you have interest in anybody who is in politics. I will be happy when its all over. The election season, you mean . Mm hm. Yes. Because, for now. I dont. Im not at ease with whats going on. Definitely not. Fora mother, no, i cannot relax. But the fact that yvonne wants to Transform Freetown makes me happy. Because i have seen what she has done in the last four, five years, and i saw what she did for ebola. Ive been scared for her life all along since ebola. I dont think her father wanted her to go into politics. But when yvonne says she wants to do something, nothing can stop her. Shesjust like that. Its her natural, natural instinct. I think its god given. Or maybe you brought her up like that as well. I wasnt going to say that. As mayor, our number one priority is the environment. Freetown is now considered, sadly, to be one of the top ten most vulnerable cities in the world to climate change. Were suffering from fires, floods, from landslides, and were going to continue to see disasters where lives are lost. Reporter the Falling Mountain tossed huge boulders down onto what were once busy streets. Snatched video on a mobile phone shows a torrent of mud and water carrying away everything in its path. Even for a country that has known a bloody civil war and a destabilising ebola outbreak, this is unbearable. I remember, like, shaking. What i saw. Will just never leave me. It was still raining. The house that i lived in just three weeks before was like the second to last house before everything was washed away. And there was literally a hole in the mountain. And people were screaming, crying. And the trauma. Trauma. I had decided to run for mayor already. But this kind of really cemented for me the need for action to tackle the Climate Crisis within our city. Reporter mayor akisawyerr was elected in the aftermath i of that tragedy. She became the first female mayor of the countrys capital in nearly 40 years. And in that time has poured her energy into transforming the city and fighting climate change. Freetown the tree town. A plan to plant and growi million trees, reducing the risk of mudslides and flooding. To date, weve planted 635,000 of our million trees. Climate has been my main focus in office, but theres so much more to be done. Im fighting to be the first female mayor to be re elected in freetown. Being a woman in politics in sierra leone is a fascinating experience. I totally underestimated the significance of my gender in terms of my role. There was no interview i had when i wasnt asked, do you think you can do this job as a woman . And i used to say, why are you asking me this . I am first and foremost a professional. Like, i happen to be a woman. And then you get things like, oh, shes so stubborn. Shes difficult. And i know that the behaviours that result in those descriptions are behaviours and attitudes which, if they were being displayed by a man, would be encouraged and celebrated. Oh, hes strong, he knows his mind. But, in my case, because im a woman, shes stubborn, shes difficult. Shes. No, shes not going to be put where you want her to be put, but thats ok. Aki sawyerr, shes not the right person, mainly because you need someone that can get hands on. You need a practical person. You need a builder, like me, someone that is willing to go to site. Someone thats willing to make things happen. She says she will clean freetown. Freetown is still filthy, you understand . So theres a lot of things that she said she would do that she hasnt done. Everything is set for the elections. Im feeling great. Im feeling like a winner, you understand . You know, im feeling gento. Gento is a winner. I have a slogan that says, its only impossible if you think it is, you know . And, erm, im going to win. Reporter we start with the elections coming up in sierra leone onjune 24th. President Julius Maada Bio is determined to win a second five year term. People voted. They stood in line for hours. And now their votes have been set aside. Deep down, i dont think i really believed they would just discard the results. I still didnt think they would go that far, but they did. Hello there. At last some beautiful Spring Sunshine for much of the uk on saturday including here in cumbria. It wasnt long before we saw the Cloud Thicken from the west before outbreaks of rain moving northwards and eastwards. This will come down as rain over wales for a time into central and Southern England and Eastern England so a soggy start to the day but it is a mild one, milder than it was on saturday morning. Temperatures between five and 11 degrees. Double figures in the south still. A mild start of the day, more sunshine on offer throughout the day on sunday but also a few showers in the afternoon. Its a very wet start for parts of Southern England. The heavy rain clears over the north sea. Here it should brighten up by lunchtime and perhaps more sunshine developing. Sunny spells elsewhere. Coastal and hill fog for a time across the west. It will cloud over Northern Ireland in the afternoon. Outbreaks of rain here, some of the shower is heavy and thundery the Northern England but mild again, we could see 17 celsius in east anglia as we head through the afternoon. Looking to the west again as we had through sunday night and into monday, various Weather Fronts approaching. These are fizzling out. There will be rain in the north and west throughout the night and then it is a bit of patchy cloud as we head through much of monday. For most of us on monday it will stay dry, clouding over, outbreaks of rain over Northern Ireland and Western Scotland by the end of the day. The air is still mild. Again, temperatures will peak in the teens for many. Keeping that mild air heading through monday and tuesday with that southwesterly wind. On tuesday we are likely to see more heavy rain across the north and the west. So for Northern Ireland and the Western Scotland. Elsewhere i think itll stay largely dry as we had throughout the day. A lot of the cloud will break up and we will see brighter spells developing. All eyes out towards the southwest by the time we get to the end of tuesday because this rain could cause some problems perhaps on wednesday. But the air is still very mild on tuesday, 12 16 celsius. It could turn cooler as we head through wednesday and thursday. It stays unsettled, more Rain Forecast at times. Bye bye. Live from washington, this is bbc news. Russia has accused ukraine of disrupting its president ial elections a ballot where President Putin has quashed all real opposition. Among those voting are russians living in the Estonian Border town of narva. The bbc speaks with the countrys Prime Minister about russian aggression in ukraine. Germany becomes the latest country to criticise israels plans for an offensive in the Southern Gazan City Of Rafah and to call for more aid to be allowed in. Iam i am helena iam helena humphrey. It is good to have you with us. Russia has accused ukraine of disrupting its president ial elections. Voters headed to the polls on the second day of a three day election that is almost certain to result in victory for incumbent president vladimir putin. But moscow said ukraine is intensifying its terrorist activities to signal to the west it needs more Financial Assistance and weaponry. Russian Authorities Say two people were killed by ukrainian shelling, In The City Of Belgorod near the border with ukraine. Shops and schools were closed in the city. Authorities also reported shelling at a Voting Station in a russian occupied part of ukraines zaporizhzhia