Sierra Leone's Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana has asked the United States for asylum after soldiers surrounded his house on Saturday.
He said he is no longer at his residence but it was not clear if he was at the U.S. Embassy in the capital, Freetown.
The move comes a week after Sam-Sumana was expelled from President Ernest Bai Koroma's All People's Congress political party after being accused of creating his own rival political movement.
"I don't feel safe this morning as vice president," he told the Associated Press news agency by phone. He said he had spoken to U.S. Ambassador John Hoover and was waiting for a response.
The U.S. Embassy refused to comment on the situation.