Samuel Hinga Norman

Samuel Hinga Norman (January 1, 1940 – February 22, 2007) was a Sierra Leonean politician from the Mende tribe. He was the founder and leader of the Civil Defence Forces, commonly known as the Kamajors. The Kamajors supported the government of Ahmed Tejan Kabbah against the Revolutionary United Front(RUF), which was led by Foday Sankoh. On 7 March 2003 Hinga Norman was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes and crimes against humanity. He died on 22 February 2007 in Dakar, Senegal while undergoing medical treatment.

Sam Hinga Norman was born January 1, 1940 in Mongeri, Bo District, in the Southern Province of Sierra Leone. He joined the Sierra Leone Army in 1959 and served until 1972, ascending to the rank of captain. He also attended school during this time and received a diploma from the Officer's School of Aldershot in the United Kingdom. Before his death, which entails controversy within, he was survived by an elder brother Michael H. Norman who was a distinguished Educationists in Ghana and notable among Michael Norman children is Fred Michael who is presently a director with the Global Resources Inc. Accra Ghana.

Entering politics, Hinga Norman became Deputy Minister of Defence, serving from April 20, 1998 to May 21, 2002). He then served as Minister of the Interior from May 21, 2002 to March 10, 2004, overlapping his indictment at the Special Court. He also served as the national director of the CDF, and tapped the traditional groups called the Kamajors to serve as a militia.

The Kamajors are a group of traditional hunters from the south and east of the country. They were originally employed by local chiefs, but under the leadership of Hinga Norman were used by President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in 1996 to replace mercenaries (Executive Outcomes and Sandline International, both of whom helped train the force) as the security force of the government. At that time members of the Sierra Leone Army (SLA), calling themselves the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), were supporting Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh against the Kabbah government. The Kamajors integrated themselves into the ECOMOG (a Nigeria led force) counteroffensive to reinstate Kabbah in 1998 after Freetown was taken by the RUF (backed by Charles Taylor and led by Foday Sankoh) in combination with the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, led by Johnny Paul Koroma. The force eventually consisted of over 20,000 men, dwarfing the size of the army and the rebel groups.

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