By Zainab Sunkary Koroma (ATJLF/MRCG Fellow 2025)
It was once the frontline of resistance, a final boundary that separated war from the capital’s heart. Now, 21 years after Sierra Leone’s civil war ended, the bridge at Congo Cross, officially renamed the Peace Bridge in 2003, stands not just as infrastructure but as a silent symbol of a nation’s journey from violence to reconciliation.
Yet, for many Sierra Leoneans, especially a new generation born after the war, the name ‘Peace Bridge’ barely resonates. Most still refer to it by its original name, unaware of the trauma it witnessed, and the legacy it carries.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), established after the war’s end, recommended that symbolic sites of conflict be repurposed to promote national healing. Among its proposals was the renaming of the Congo Cross Bridge, once a key defensive point in the brutal January 6, 1999 attack on Freetown, as a monument to peace.
Leave a Reply