MONDAY, 8.00AM
JUNIOR soldiers in the Sierra Leone army have staged a coup, calling on senior officers and government officials to report to the military barracks. The rebels, whose spokesman is a corporal, say that president Ahmed Kabbah has fled the country. The coup was sparked by rivalry between soldiers and a paramilitary group called the Kamajors, favoured by the government, who claim to have “magical” powers.
MONDAY, 6.00PM
The leader of the Sierra Leone coup, army major Johnny Paul Koroma, has invited rebel leader Corporal Foday Sankoh, currently imprisoned in Nigeria, to join his government. Sankoh led the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in a five-year civil war which officially ended last year — but recently lapsed into fighting once again.
The coup took place on Sunday, with soldiers led by junior officers clashing with Nigerian troops who had been brought in to protect president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, who won the country’s first democratic elections, under UN supervision, last year. Kabbah has fled by helicopter to neighbouring Guinea.
The rebellious troops first stormed Freetown’s main jail and freed 600 inmates, including soldiers charged with plotting against Kabbah. The former prisoners then helped in further mortar and rocket attacks on other buildings, in which five civilians are reported to have died. the US embassy was twice struck by rockets and looting was rife until a curfew was declared at sunset.
Koromah declared himself head of state on Monday, and spoke on the national radio, denouncing the “cabals and sectional politics” of the regime.
Sierra Leone has been ravaged by a brutal civil war since 1991, until a peace pact was signed betwen Kabbah and Sankoh in November last year. The peace began to fall apart in March, with skirmishes between RUF elements and pro-government militia groups called the Kamajors, which claim to have “magical” powers.
Sankoh was arrested two months ago during a visit to Nigeria and the suspicion is that the arrest was a deal arranged between the Nigerians and the Kabbah government.
Both UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Organisation of African Unity Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim have condemned the coup. Salim has urged the continent’s leaders to condemn the coup and not to welcome the coup ringleaders into OAU ranks: “It is lamentable that some soldiers who have no mandate to rule at all should decide to challenge the legitimate position of the people. It is a setback for Africa’s transition to democracy.”