Foday Sankoh
| Foday Sankoh | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Leader of the Revolutionary United Front | |
|
In office 1991–2000 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
October 17, 1937 Masang Mayoso, Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone |
| Died | July 29, 2003 (aged 65) Freetown, Sierra Leone |
| Nationality | Sierra Leonean |
| Political party | Revolutionary United Front |
| Profession | Rebel, Soldier |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |
 Sierra Leone |
| Service/branch | Sierra Leone Army |
| Years of service | 1956-1971 |
| Rank | Corporal |
Foday Saybana Sankoh (17 October 1937 – 29 July 2003) was the founder and leader of the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the 11-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in 1991 and ending in 2002. An estimated 50,000 people were killed during the war, and over 500,000 people were displaced in neighbouring countries.
Foday Sankoh was born on 17 October 1937, in the remote village of Masang Mayoso, Tonkolili District in the Northern part of Sierra Leone to an ethnic Temne father and a Loko mother. Sankoh was the son of a farmer.
Sankoh attended primary and secondary school in Magburaka, Tonkolili District and took on a number of jobs in Magburaka before he joined the Sierra Leone army in 1956. He undertook training in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. In 1971, then a corporal in the Sierra Leone army, he was cashiered from the army's signal corps and imprisoned for seven years at the Pademba Road Prison in Freetown for taking part in a mutiny.
On his release he worked as an itinerant photographer in the south and east of Sierra Leone, eventually coming in contact with young radicals.
Sankoh and confederates Rashid Mansaray and Abu Kanu solicited support for an armed uprising to oust the APC government. They then traveled to Liberia, where they reportedly continued recruiting and served with Charles G. Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL).
On 23 March 1991, the RUF, led by Foday Sankoh and backed by Charles Taylor, launched its first attack in villages in Kailahun District in the diamond-rich Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.
...
Wikipedia