Valentine Strasser | |
---|---|
Head of State of Sierra Leone | |
In office 1 May 1992 –16 January 1996 | |
Deputy | Solomon Musa [1] Julius Maada Bio [2] |
Preceded by | Yahya Kanu |
Succeeded by | Julius Maada Bio |
Chairman of the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) | |
In office 1 May 1992 –16 January 1996 | |
Preceded by | Yahya Kanu |
Succeeded by | Julius Maada Bio |
Personal details | |
Born | Valentine Esegragbo Melvine Strasser 26 April 1967 Freetown,Sierra Leone |
Political party | Military Junta (National Provisional Ruling Council- NPRC) |
Children | Valentine Strasser Jr |
Residence(s) | Newton,Sierra Leone |
Alma mater | University of Warwick,Coventry,England,UK |
Profession | Army officer |
Religion | Anglican |
Military service | |
Branch/service | Sierra Leone Army |
Years of service | 1985–1996 |
Rank | Captain |
Battles/wars | Sierra Leone Civil War |
Valentine Esegragbo Melvine Strasser (born 26 April 1967) is a former Sierra Leonean military officer who served as head of state of Sierra Leone from 1992 to 1996. He became the world's youngest Head of State in 1992,seizing power three days after his 25th birthday.
Strasser was born and raised in the neighbourhood of Allen Town in the east end of Sierra Leone's capital Freetown to Creole parents. He enlisted in the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces (RSLMF) at age eighteen,immediately after graduating from secondary school. In the context of the Sierra Leone Civil War which had erupted in the previous year,he led a coup d'état in 1992 which overthrew president Joseph Saidu Momoh. He then established the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) military junta. During the war,he hired Executive Outcomes,a South African mercenary firm to repel the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group.
As the war continued,after nearly four years in power,Strasser was ousted in a second military coup in 1996, [3] led by his deputy,Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio. [4] Following his overthrow,he lived in England where he unsuccessfully sought asylum. He later unsuccessfully attempted to enter the Gambia in 2000 before eventually returning to Sierra Leone.
Valentine Esegragbo Melvin Strasser was born on 26 April 1967 in Freetown,the capital of Sierra Leone,to parents from the Creole ethnic group. At the time of Strasser's birth,Sir Albert Margai was the Prime Minister of Sierra Leone when the country was a parliamentary government. Strasser grew up in the neighbourhood of Allen Town,in the extreme East End of Freetown.
Strasser completed his secondary education at the Sierra Leone Grammar School in Freetown and graduated in 1985 at age eighteen. While in secondary school,Strasser was a gifted student in math and chemistry.
On graduation from secondary school in 1985,he enlisted in the Republic of Sierra Leone Military Forces (RSLMF) at the age of eighteen during the government of President Siaka Stevens,and was deployed for military training as a cadet officer at the Benguema Military Training Academy in Benguema,a town located just outside Freetown. After his training,he was commissioned into the Sierra Leone army at the young age of nineteen. He was posted to a military barracks in Daru,Kailahun District in Eastern Sierra Leone.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) led by Foday Sankoh began their first attack on 25 March 1991 in Buedu villages in Kailahun District. Strasser and other soldiers who were already in a military barracks in Kailahun,were sent to command and rout the rebellion against the RUF.
Before President Momoh was removed by his successor,Valentine Strasser fought against the Liberian invasion in Sierra Leone,particularly in the East and South of Sierra Leone. Strasser in his fight had to go up against domestic rebels,also known as sobels. President Momoh's presidency was not long-lasting because he denied the demands of the people of Sierra Leone at the time of his regime wanted a more cooperative political system and thought Momoh provided nothing different than his predecessor.” [5]
During Strasser's time at the war front in Kailahun District against the RUF,the Government of Sierra Leone led by president Joseph Saidu Momoh hardly supplied enough boots to the soldiers and the necessary military equipment to help fortify Strasser and his fellow soldiers in the war against the RUF. The soldiers never received their salaries on time and their welfare was hardly at the top of the government's list of priorities.
After many appeals,warnings or threats,the young soldiers decided to march down in their combat from Kailahun to the State House in Freetown on 29 April 1992,to protest about their setbacks in pursuing the war,demanding their outstanding salaries. The group of soldiers was led by Strasser himself and his two best friends and fellow soldiers Seargent Solomon Musa and Captain Sahr Sandy. The appearance of the soldiers in the capital city forced president Momoh to flee the country and he went into exile in Conakry,Guinea. This power vacuum motivated Strasser and his men to seize power,forming the NPRC,with Strasser as its leader and the Head of State of the country. Strasser became the youngest Head of State in the world at just twenty five years old. [6] [7]
In January 1996,after nearly four years in power,Strasser was ousted in another military coup,but this time it was his own NPRC members who were not satisfied with his handling of the peace process. The coup was led by his deputy,Brigadier General Julius Maada Bio,along with Colonel Tom Nyuma and Captain Komba Mondeh. Bio quickly rose as the leader of the coup,with the support of Nyuma and Mondeh and took over as Head of State of Sierra Leone.
Following his overthrow,Strasser was given a fellowship by the UN to study law at the University of Warwick in Coventry,England,but stopped his studies after 18 months. [8] In 2000,Strasser's application for asylum in England was rejected;he then left for the Gambia,only to be denied entry. [9] He eventually returned to Sierra Leone,where he lived in poverty on a small pension in Grafton,east of Freetown, [10] [11] and worked at the ICT Institute providing computer skills for youths. [12]
In January 2019,he fell gravely ill [13] and was flown to Ghana for treatment. [14] His left leg was partially amputated due to peripheral artery disease. [15] After undergoing rehabilitation,he returned to Sierra Leone in July 2021,and received an apartment from President Bio. [16] Amadu Makalo Koita,a member of the opposition All People's Congress,later alleged that the government was keeping Strasser under house arrest. [17]
Sierra Leone,officially the Republic of Sierra Leone,is country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It shares its southeastern border with Liberia and is bordered by Guinea to the north. With a land area of 71,740 km2 (27,699 sq mi),Sierra Leone has a tropical climate and with a variety of environments ranging from savannas to rainforests. According to the 2015 census,Sierra Leone has a population of 7,092,113,with Freetown serving as both the capital and largest city. The country is divided into five administrative regions,which are further subdivided into 16 districts.
Sierra Leone first became inhabited by indigenous African peoples at least 2,500 years ago. The Limba were the first tribe known to inhabit Sierra Leone. The dense tropical rainforest partially isolated the region from other West African cultures,and it became a refuge for peoples escaping violence and jihads. Sierra Leone was named by Portuguese explorer Pedro de Sintra,who mapped the region in 1462. The Freetown estuary provided a good natural harbour for ships to shelter and replenish drinking water,and gained more international attention as coastal and trans-Atlantic trade supplanted trans-Saharan trade.
The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces are the armed forces of Sierra Leone,responsible for the territorial security of Sierra Leone's borders and defending the national interests of Sierra Leone,within the framework of the 1991 Sierra Leone Constitution and International laws. The armed forces were formed after independence in 1961,on the basis of elements of the former British Royal West African Frontier Force,then present in the Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate.
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone,from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession,Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.
Major Johnny Paul Koroma was a Sierra Leonean military officer who was the head of state of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.
Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh,OOR,OBE was a Sierra Leonean politician and military officer who served as the second President of Sierra Leone from November 1985 to 29 April 1992.
Julius Maada Wonie Bio is a Sierra Leonean politician,and the current president of Sierra Leone since 4 April 2018. He is a retired brigadier in the Sierra Leone Army and was the military head of state of Sierra Leone from 16 January 1996 to 29 March 1996,in a military junta government known as the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC).
The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002),or the Sierra Leonean Civil War,was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF),with support from the special forces of Liberian dictator Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL),intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 years,enveloping the country. It left over 50,000 dead.
Colonel Yahya Kanu Kanu was a loyalist to president Joseph Saidu Momoh. He was first reported by Reuters to have led the coup,but that same day he went onto the BBC's Focus on Africa to deny that role,claiming instead that he was attempting to negotiate with the mutineers. He was imprisoned by Valentine Strasser,who eventually took power in the coup. Kanu was later executed by Valentine Strasser,Solomon Musa,Maada Bio and Idriss Kamara on a beach near Freetown,after being accused of organizing a counter-coup with All People's Congress supporter Bambay Kamara. The pair were at the time interred in the Pademba Road jail in Freetown.
Solomon Anthony James Musa,also known as SAJ Musa,was an important military and political figure in the Sierra Leone Civil War.
The Abidjan Peace Accord was a treaty signed in Abidjan,Côte d'Ivoire on 30 November 1996 to try to bring an end to the Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002). The two main signatories were President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah of Sierra Leone and Foday Sankoh,leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group. However,Sankoh refused to honour the terms of the agreement,and Kabbah was forced into exile by a May 1997 military coup,so the Accord failed to bring about peace.
Tom Nyuma was a Sierra Leonean military commander and the chairman of the Kailahun District council. He was elected as chairman of Kailahun District council on July 6,2008 with 87% of the vote running on the opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) ticket.
Komba Sylvester Mansa-Musa Mondeh was a top-ranking officer in the Sierra Leonean army. Mondeh was one of six young soldiers in the Sierra Leonean Army that ousted president Joseph Saidu Momoh led All People's Congress (APC) government on 29 April 1992. He served as the deputy head of state of Sierra Leone in 1996,under Brigadier Julius Maada Bio of the NPRC.
Samuel Komba Kambo is a retired captain in the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces. Kambo was one of six young soldiers in the Sierra Leonean Army that ousted president Joseph Saidu Momoh and the All People's Congress government on April 29,1992.
Jamil Sahid Mohamed Khalil was a Sierra Leonean-Lebanese businessman,diamonds and commodities trader. He attained prominence in the diamond industry across Africa and Antwerp and became an influential figure in the politics of Sierra Leone through his close association with President Siaka Stevens. Jamil also came to dominate other business sectors including fisheries,tourism construction and aviation.
The 1992 Sierra Leonean coup d'état was a coup d'état against the government of Sierra Leone by a group of young military officers led by 25-year-old Captain Valentine Strasser on 29 April 1992. Strasser took control of the government,deposing President Joseph Saidu Momoh.
Bockarie Kortu Stevens is a Sierra Leonean diplomat and the current Sierra Leonean Ambassador to the United States;and also Sierra Leone's permanent representative to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is the son of Sierra Leone's first president Siaka Stevens.
The United Kingdom began a military intervention in Sierra Leone on 7 May 2000 under the codename Operation Palliser. Although small numbers of British personnel had been deployed previously,Palliser was the first large-scale intervention by British forces in the Sierra Leone Civil War. In early May 2000,the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)—one of the main parties to the civil war—advanced on the country's capital,Freetown,prompting the British government to dispatch an "Operational Reconnaissance and Liaison Team" (ORLT) to prepare to evacuate foreign citizens. On 6 May,the RUF blocked the road connecting Freetown to the country's main airport,Lungi. The next day,British soldiers began to secure the airport and other areas essential to an evacuation. The majority of those who wished to leave were evacuated within the first two days of the operation,but many chose to stay following the arrival of British forces.
Colonel Kahota M.S. Dumbuya commonly known as K.M.S. Dumbuya was a senior military officer in the Sierra Leone Armed Forces. K.M.S Dumbua was the late husband of the religious Sierra Leonean evangelist preacher Mammy Dumbuya.
James Bambay Kamara served as Inspector General of the Sierra Leone Police Force from 1987 until 1992.
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