Foday sankoh as a rebel leader

By most accounts, the portly, cheerful, former army corporal seems more like a wedding photographer, a former occupation, than the leader of one of the world's more gruesome military organizations, which he has since become. But like many leaders, Foday Sankoh, 64, the Sierra Leonean warlord, is a contradiction. Although he is affectionately known as Papa by his troops in the Revolutionary United Front, RUF, Sankoh is so widely despised in Sierra Leone , that cheering, dancing people filled the streets as news of his May 17 capture spread throughout Freetown.

Those who have met the tubby leader of the Revolutionary United Front, Foday Sankoh, remark on his charismatic, ebullient character.

Soldiers shot Sankoh in the thigh as he attempted to avoid capture, according to the Concord Times of Freetown. The bleeding Sankoh was surrounded by a mob that beat him, pulled off his clothes and paraded him naked through the streets. He was eventually taken into military custody. The international human rights organization Human Rights Watch is urging that Sankoh receive a fair trial to reinforce the rule of law in Sierra Leone.

His capture came nine days after he had disappeared from his home where he had been detained under house arrest. The rebel leader has been captured before. He was sentenced to death in , but his RUF forces responded with a horrific invasion of Freetown. West African troops, led by Nigeria , repulsed the attack several weeks later.

Foday Saybana Sankoh (17 October – 29 July ) was a Sierra Leonean rebel leader who was the founder and commander of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group, which was supported by Charles Taylor-led NPFL in the year-long Sierra Leone Civil War, starting in and ending in An See more.

Sankoh subsequently received amnesty in return for signing the July peace treaty. RUF rebels, believed to be about 15, strong, continued to dominate much of the countryside however, including valuable diamond mines. In their most recent reign of terror on the country, the RUF captured some peacekeepers in the beginning of May. A number had been released prior to Sankoh's capture and there has been speculation on how his arrest would affect the release of the remaining hostages.

Sankoh began his political career in the s, as a critic of widespread corruption. Sierra Leone's military and political elite were plundering the diamond and other mineral wealth of the tiny nation, whose people are considered to be among the world's poorest.