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Foday Sankoh ( October 17, 1937 - July 29, 2003) was a leader of the Sierra Leone rebel faction Revolutionary United Front in the 10-year-long Sierra Leonean civil war, which ended in 2002.

Between 50,000 and 200,000 people died in the civil war Sankoh started in 1991.

A former corporal in the Sierra Leonean army, wedding photographer, and television cameraman, Sankoh became a student activist in the 1970s. After his activism earned him a short prison term, Sankoh joined a Cold War guerilla camp in Libya sponsored by Moammar Gadhafi, where Moammar Gadhafi was preaching revolutionary ideas to West African dissidents. It is here that he met Charles Taylor, future president of LiberiaLiberia is a country on the west coast of Africa, bordered by Sierra Leone, Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire. The country has recently been afflicted by two civil wars ( 1989 1996 and 1999 2003) that have displaced hundreds of thousands of its citizens and destro and Sankoh's financial benefactor and ally throughout the civil war. With his encouragement, Sankoh and two allies, Abu Kanu and Rashid Mansaray, returned from Libya to form the RUF and begin an insurrection.

His RUF became notorious for brutal practices such as mass rapes and amputations during the civil war. Sankoh personally ordered many operations, including one called "Operation Pay Yourself" that encouraged troops to loot anything they could find. After complaining about such tactics, Kanu and Mansaray were summarily executed. During the ten-year war, Sankoh broke several promises to stop fighting, eventually leading BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a state in Western Europe, usually known simply as the United Kingdom the UK Britain or less accurately as Great Britain . The UK was formed by a series of Acts of Union which united the formerly and GuineanRepublique de Guinee ( In Detail) (Full size) National motto: Travail, Justice, Solidarite(Work, Justice, Solidarity Official language French (official), Fula, Arabic, others Capital Conakry Capital's coordinates 9° 30' N, 13° 43' W Largest City Conakry P forces to intervene in Sierra Leone with their own small, but professional, military forces. The RUF was crushed. Sankoh was later arrested after his soldiers gunned down a number of protesters outside his FreetownFor other cities of the same name, see Freetown (disambiguation). Freetown population 519,500 ( 1995), is the capital of Sierra Leone. The city is a port on the Atlantic Ocean. Freetown's economy revolves largely around its harbor, which handles Sierra Le home in 2000This page is about the year 2000. See 2000 AD for the UK comic book, Number 2000 for other uses. 2000 is a leap year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar), and also the International Year for a Culture of Peace''. Events Y2K passes without the seri. His arrest led to massive celebrations in Freetown. Sankoh was handed to the British and, under jurisdiction of a UNFlag of the United Nations The United Nations or UN is an international organization made up of states. Almost all countries are members. It was established in San Francisco on October 24, 1945, following the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, DC, b-backed court, he was indicted on 17 counts for various war crimes, including crimes against humanity, rape, sexual slavery and extermination.

Sankoh died of complications from a stroke while awaiting trial. The chief prosecutor for the trial said Sankoh's death granted him "a peaceful end that he denied to so many others".