Foday Sankoh

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Pronunciation of Foday Sankoh

Foday Saybana Sankoh (born October 17, 1937 in Masang Mayoso , Sierra Leone , † July 29, 2003 in Freetown ) was the leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) from Sierra Leone. It is estimated that up to 200,000 people died during the civil war he instigated in Sierra Leone and the fight against government soldiers. Before he could be convicted of his actions by the Special Court for Sierra Leone , he died of a stroke. Sankoh is buried in his home village of Masang in the Tonkolili district .

Sankoh was briefly from May 26, 1997 to February 12, 1998 and from 1999 to 2000 Vice President of Sierra Leone.

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Life

Early years

Foday Sankoh was born on October 17, 1937 in the city of Masang Mayoso, Sierra Leone. In 1956 he joined the British Colonial Army and made it to the corporal. In 1971 he was released from service and sentenced to seven years in prison for his involvement in an attempted coup against Siaka Stevens . From now on, however, the violence and corruption in Sierra Leone's politics intensified and the political opposition became increasingly blocked. After his release, he initially worked as a photographer and specialized in wedding photos, then he worked as a cameraman for television. Foday Sankoh then went to Libya to be trained in a guerrilla camp together with other West Africans in exile. On the trip back to Sierra Leone, which took him through Liberia , he met his future mentor and financier Charles Taylor , who later became President of Liberia after supporting Sankoh in the civil war .

Civil war

With the support of Taylor and two other allies, Abu Kanu and Rashid Mansaray , he returned from Liberia to Sierra Leone to found the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) there in 1991 . This group set itself the task of gaining political power over Sierra Leone and control of the diamond mines in order to get money by smuggling so-called blood diamonds . They stopped at nothing to achieve these goals. The population was terrorized in order to keep resistance as low as possible. People were either killed, mutilated or taken to work in the mines, numerous children were forcibly recruited as soldiers, and women and young girls were raped. These actions were carried out on his orders, or at least were authorized by him. After ordering Operation Pay Yourself - a raid on villages in which the soldiers were ordered to kill everyone without exception - his allies Kanu and Mansaray criticized the brutal approach, and Sankoh had them executed.

Imprisonment

In March 1997, Sankoh fled government troops to Nigeria , where he was captured and transferred to Sierra Leone. In October 1998 he was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for high treason, but was given amnesty the next year for the Lomé Peace Accords of July 7, 1999, which put an end to the fight between rebels and government troops. During his absence, the RUF was led by Sam Bockarie . After his release, the treaty was broken and the armed struggle continued, just as the 1997 Abidjan peace treaty had not been respected. On May 17, 2000, special forces from Great Britain and Guinea were deployed to eliminate the rebel troops. Shortly thereafter, Sankoh was captured outside the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown , and brought to trial. News of his arrest sparked impromptu street parties in Freetown. By the final end of the war in 2002, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 people were killed.

Condemnation

Arrested by British soldiers, Sankoh was charged with seventeen cases of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the special tribunal for Sierra Leone . According to the prosecution, he was responsible for the crimes because he either planned, instigated, or ordered them. He was also accused of being a superior who knew about acts committed and still had not prevented them. Before being convicted, he suffered a stroke while in detention . He died of it on July 29, 2003 in Choithrams Hospital in Freetown. The chief prosecutor in charge then regretted that Sankoh had had a peaceful end, which he had previously denied so many. ( "A peaceful end that he denied to so many others." )

literature

  • Ibrahim Abdullah: Bush Path to Destruction: The Origin and Character of the Revolutionary United Front / Sierra Leone , In: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Vol. 36, No. 2, June 1998, pp. 203-235.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / amnesty-sierra-leone.de  
  2. ↑ A visit to Foday Saybana Sankoh's Grave. Monuments & Relics Commission, June 2019, p. 14.
  3. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/jul/31/guardianobituaries.westafrica
personal data
SURNAME Sankoh, Foday
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sankoh, Foday Saybana (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Sierra Leonean rebel leader and war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Masang Mayoso , Tonkolili , Sierra Leone
DATE OF DEATH July 29, 2003
Place of death Freetown , Sierra Leone