Remembering January 6 1999

January 6, 1999 commonly referred to as J-6 will forever be a date entrenched in the memories of many Sierra Leoneans.  My family and I woke up to heavy  and repeated sounds of gunshot and screams at 4 am on that fateful Wednesday morning.  In no time everyone had jumped out of their beds into the hallway, our expressions identically marked by intense fear and dread. Without saying a word, my mother hurdled us together in the corridor between two concrete walls. We all knew this drill from previous experience. It was done to get us away from the windows, making it less likely to be hit by stray bullets entering through the window. As we hurdled together gripped with terror, my older brother softly uttered the first words saying “dem don cam” (they have arrived), everyone including my 10 years old self knew what this meant. Mother turned on the radio to BBC’ where focus on Africa anchor  Robin White confirmed our worst fears.  RUF rebels and AFRC soldiers (they) colloquially referred to as Sobels many of who were child soldiers hooked on drugs had indeed invaded Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. We would sit in this corridor for almost the whole day and thus began for me one of bloodiest three weeks in the history of my country. It was filled with heinous crimes including murder, amputation, rape, robbery, displacement and destruction of private and public properties during which Sierra Leone became the worst place to live.

This was not the first time Sobels had invaded the city, earlier on in May 25^th 1997 they had taken control of the city, seized power and exiled the democratically elected civilian government.  With the government exiled to Guinea, the next nine months under the rule of the AFRC/RUF junta was filled with chaos, death, destruction and lawlessness. Western countries came in and whisked away their citizens and expatriate workers left Sierra Leoneans to perish on their own. Our savours were the Nigerian-led West African peacekeeping force (ECOMOG) who intervened and gallantly fought on our behalf. They succeeded in ousting the rebels from the city back to the provinces and re-instated the President Kabbah in March 1998. Two weeks into the coup some of my family members and I  also  fled to Guinea   were we lived as refugees and returned  three weeks after the  civilian government was restored ( blog post coming up on our journey to Guinea and  the 9 months refugee experience).  After this, EOMOG forces remained in control of the city while the Sobels continued their massacre in rural Sierra Leone. That was until they invaded again on January 6 to everyone greatest surprise.

The J-6 attack which was named “operation no living thing” was way brutal and more vicious than previous attacks as the rebels were angry that they had been removed from power the previous year. Their sole aim was to retake the city from the ECOMOG forces by any means necessary and regain power.  This attacked was predominately waged against civilians as they randomly and blatantly executed civilians, accused of being supporters or relatives of President Kabbah, civil defence forces or ECOMOG forces. They further terrorized their victims regardless of age, gender or ethnicity by forcing them to participate in their own mutilation through asking them to make choices regarding which limb ( hand or leg)  or  finger, hand, or arm (short sleeve or long sleeve) to have amputated. They also used rape and other forms of physical abuse such as excessive flogging and bodily torture to terrorize innocent civilians. In many cases rebels were known to use civilians as shields while advancing into ECOMOG held territories thus, making difficult for the ECOMOG forces to fire back at them. By the end of the first day of the invasion, rebels had taken over eastern and central Freetown while the ECOMOG remained in control of the western area of the city.

My family and I stayed in Congo Town which was relatively on the border controlled by ECOMOG forces. For the next couple of weeks we routinely heard gunshot sounds and the whistling sound of the alpha jet as it passed over our house to drop bombs elsewhere. Every day scores of displaced people who had made it through the rebel lines into the ECOMOG controlled area passed by house, some of whom were wounded or maimed, many carried few of their belongings on their head while most escaped with nothing. They brought with them terrifying stories of the indiscriminate killing, looting, maiming and atrocity that were taking place in rebel occupied locations. It was particularly horrifying to hear because we had relatives living in those areas whom we had yet to hear from. By the end of the first week some of our relatives were able to make their way to our place. I can still remember the joy and relief on my mother’s face when her sister and her children who lived in Fouray Bay, the eastern part of town arrived home. Two days later my eight months pregnant aunty showed up, she had had to scale over a seven foot fence during her escape. She would eventually have a still birth because of this deed. Our four bedroom house moved from having eight occupants to almost twenty people.  These were really dark times both literally and figuratively.  There was no electricity at all, which made night time particularly scary as the sound, sights and smells of carnage were more evident. The radio was our only source of information, and the government though FM98.1, the only available local radio station routinely advised people to stay indoors. As a result school and work were non-existent while commerce and trade were at a minimum with only the brave daring out.  Consequently there was a hike in food prices and massive shortage of food.  Most days we had barely enough food and many times we had to eat the same food a couple of days however we, were among the lucky ones as many of my fellow countrymen went through worst.

 By time ECOMOG was once again able to repel the rebels and take control of the entire city  on January 28^th  1999 an estimated 7000 Sierra Leoneans had died, most of whom where civilians.  Likewise around 2000 women were raped, with over 350 people amputated and close to 2500 homes and public building such as the national treasury burnt down or destroyed. The national stadium became a dwelling place for close to 40,000 displaced Sierra Leoneans following the attack.  J-6 affected all Sierra Leoneans one way or the other be it directly or indirectly.  Its horrible legacy is will forever remain in the histories of Sierra Leone for generations to come.

Today on January 6^th 2015,   Sierra Leone commemorates the 16^th memorial of J-6 while struggling against a new adversary in the form of Ebola. This new adversary has resulted in 2578 deaths to date and brings back memories of the war for many Sierra Leoneans. It may seem like we as a nation are been dealt one deadly blow after another and many of us may want to give up. In this regard I urge my fellow Sierra Leoneans that as we grieve and remember our friends , relatives, neighbours, colleagues  and all we lost on this day 16 years ago let us not lose hope in the face of Ebola. We are a nation or strong resilient people, who collectively forgave one another, picked up the pieces of the civil war and forged ahead towards rebuilding and development. Likewise, let us collectively put our focus, strength and energy into making Ebola history.

Rest in Peace to the 7000 deceased victims of J-6 (January 6 - January 28 1999),

Rest in Peace to the 50,000 victims of the entire 11 years civil war (March 1999 - January 2002),

 Rest in Peace to the 2578 Ebola victims Ebola. (May 2014- ongoing)

YOU ARE GONE BUT NEVER FORGOTTEN