Ahmad Tejan Kabbah

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (born February 16, 1932) is the President of Sierra Leone (1996-1997, 1998 - present). He worked for the United Nations Development Programme, and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992. He was elected president in 1996. Most of his time in office was marked by a bloody civil war with the Revolutionary United Front, led by Foday Sankoh, which involved him being temporarily ousted by the military Armed Forces Revolutionary Council from May 1997 to March 1998 He was soon returned to power after a military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Another phase of the civil war led to United Nations and British involvement in the country in 2000. The civil war was officially declared over in early 2002, and Kabbah went on to win yet another term in office in the presidential election later that year.

Political career in Sierra Leone

Following the military coup in 1992, he was asked to chair the National Advisory Council, one of the mechanisms established by the junta to facilitate the restoration of constitutional rule, including the drafting of a new constitution for Sierra Leone. He reputedly intended his return to Sierra Leone to be a retirment, but was encouraged by those around him and the political situation that arose to become more actively involved in the politics of Sierra Leone.

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First term as President

In March 1996, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), was elected President of Sierra Leone in the first multi-party elections in twenty-three years. Guided by his philosophy of "political inclusion" he appointed the most broad-based government in the nation's history, drawing from all political parties represented in Parliament, and ?technocrats? in civil society. One minority party did not accept his offer of a cabinet post.

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The President's first major objective was to end the rebel war which, in four years had already claimed hundreds of innocent lives, driven thousands of others into refugee status, and ruined the nation's economy. In November 1996, in Abidjan in Cote d?Ivoire, he signed a peace agreement with the rebel leader, former Corporal Foday Sankoh of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF).

Related Topics:
Foday Sankoh - Revolutionary United Front

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The rebels reneged on the Agreement, resumed hostilities, and later perpetrated on the people of Sierra Leone what has been described as one of the most brutal internal conflicts in the world.

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Coup and exile

In 1996, a coup attempt involving Johnny Paul Koroma and other junior officers of the Sierra Leone Army was unsuccessful, but served as notice that Kabbah's control over military and government officials in Freetown was weakening.

Related Topics:
Johnny Paul Koroma - Freetown

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In May 1997, a military coup forced the President into exile in neighbouring Guinea. The coup was led by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, and upon siezing power, Koroma was freed and installed as the head of state. Kabbah's democratically elected government was restored nine months later when the military-rebel junta was removed by troops representing the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) under the command of the Nigerian led ECOMOG (ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group) and loyal civil and military defence forces, notably the Kamajors led by Samuel Hinga Norman.

Related Topics:
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council - Economic Community of West African States - Nigerian - ECOMOG - Kamajors - Samuel Hinga Norman

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Kabbah was forced to flee to Guinnea and attempted to garner international support.

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Return to Sierra Leone

Once again, in pursuit of peace, President Kabbah signed another peace agreement with the RUF rebel leader Foday Sankoh in July 1999. Notwithstanding repeated violations by the RUF, the document, known as the Lomé Peace Agreement, remained the cornerstone of sustainable peace, security, justice and national reconciliation in Sierra Leone. On 18 January 2002, at a ceremony marking the conclusion of the disarmament and demobilization of ex-combatants under the auspices of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL), he declared that the rebel war was over.

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