Sometime in November 2006, I spent a weekend with a group of four army officers in Jos and quickly spurred them to narrate their ECOMOG experiences during their tours of duty as part of the pan-West African ECOWAS Ceasefire Monitoring Group which was charged with restoring peace to conflict-ridden Liberia and Sierra Leone during the decade of the 1990s. In broad outlines, permit my use of the account of the most senior of the lot who I would describe as being completely battle-hardened.
My star narrator took off from Nigeria to Liberia in July 1996 and did not come back till 2000. He was frank enough to admit that the roughest days of action in Liberia(ie the Dogonyaro era and the famous April 6 battle) had come and gone by the time he was in Monrovia under the command of the current Liberian Army Chief of Staff Major General Y.L Nyeh. At the time,the then Colonel Nyeh was ECOMOG Ground Task Force Commander ie charged with the protection and defence of Greater Monrovia.
When the Sierra Leone war escalated in the last quarter of 1998,he and his company were offloaded to SLR to form the advance party of the battalion planned for the defence of Kenema. They made it into SLR overland at about the same time as ECOMOG forces around Makeni were pushed back and out of the town by a large and well equipped RUF brigade,supported by a fresh consignment of artillery,RRs and ATGWs from Burkina Faso and in operations led by a mix of South African and French mercenaries.
In retaliation,ECOMOG Forces in the East (still outnumbered and awaiting reinforcements from Nigeria) attacked Sam Moskita Bockari’s Field HQ and Bush Camp at Kailahun,levelling it with 122mm & 155mm field guns. This narrator was actually a company 2 I/C at some point and their unit was charged with securing the Kenema airstrip
Anyway,to teach the ECOMOG Forces an enduring lesson, the RUF decided to attack Kenema head on and link up with RUF forces advancing on Freetown from elsewhere at the time.
Describing the topography of Kenema which the RUF took full advantage of to launch this attack,he said that the town is situated along the path of a high hill range which rises from many miles inland but terminates in the heart of the town. All but the ECOMOG forces were aware of the impending attack and on D-Day,the town quietly emptied itself around midnight. The natives left our countrymen to stew in their own juice apparently.
Ascending the hill range from way out of town, the RUF forces literarily descended on the town at 2.30am. In the ensuing 16 hour battle, anti-tank guns, artillery heavy mortars, RPGs and all manner of dangerous weapons were freely used. In this battle,the RUF deployed the feared French HOT anti-tank missile.
At this juncture,the narrator lifted his shirt to show me where he received a severe burn after he mistakenly slung an AK 47 from which he had expended 10 magazines during the 16-hour battle period. He fought the battle with an AK47 in one hand and an RPG launcher in the other. At the cessation of the day’s hostilities(the RUF beat a retreat for emphasis),11 Nigerian soldiers lay dead while 42 RUF troops were liquidated.
Talking about weapons systems adapted for specific battlefields, he said that the strategic weapon with which ECOMOG forces time and again sent the enemy into retreat was NOT 122mm or 155mm or tanks BUT the quadruple-barreled ZSU-23 AIR DEFENCE ARTILLERY SYSTEM(the SHILKA) employed in direct fire mode ie flat trajectory. This claim was overwhemingly backed up back by all the officers present. They said the muzzle velocity,astonishing rate of fire,number(four) and comparatively low calibre of the 23mm cannons made them a formidable weapon against personnel, positions and vehicles.
Some of the officers who commanded his own brigade(charged with the protection of eastern Sierra Leone included Brigadiers-General DRA Ndefo (later General Officer Commanding 1 Mechanised Division), the proactive UJ Uwuigbe and Ndiowei. He concluded by affirming that 70% of all the approximately 8000 commissioned officers of the NA saw military action during the heady 10 years between 1990 and 2000. The rest 30% consist of officers in non-combat units and those commissioned after 2000 AD when serenity had returned to the Mano River area.
The said officer proudly told me that he received his Lieutenant to Captain and Captain to Major promotions whilst away on foreign missions. With an utmost sense of pride,he told me that his Captain pips were pinned on his shoulders by the late Brigadier General Maxwell Mitikishe Khobe, arguably the most acclaimed hero of the post civil war Nigerian Army.
Some analysts have contended that the Nigerian Air Force’s Alpha jets were not adapted to the Mano River Area engagements. It may surprise you to know that all the officers agreed with the benefit of hindsight that helicopter gunships such as the Mi-24 Hind and Mi-35 would have been much more effective in the Close Air Support missions which the Army needed from time to time. That is instructive for all those who wanted to see F-18s and Patriot missiles in an African Bush War pitting conventional forces against murderous and unscrupulous drug-propelled guerrillas! Curiously,the officers said that each time a new battalion was flown in from Nigeria, the Revolutionary United Front rebels took it upon themselves to engage them as a way of testing their resolve.
Playing the spoilsport, I sought to know their impressions of their fellow ECOMOG troops. They said that the Guineans were very compatible comrades-in-arms who gave no quarter and were tenacious and proud warriors. Er, they also said that the Charlies (an apparent reference to Ghanaian soldiers) were more interested in looking good than in fighting and were very good at rearguard duties and the protection of liberated areas. Their uniforms and sentry posts were also the neatest as, in the heat of raging battles elsewhere, they had no qualms about white-washing their sentry posts and shining their boots from sunrise till sunset!
i have always maintained that the story of the valour,and courage of nigerian troops in liberia and sierra leone has not been told and appreciated.i remember reading a book about operation barras and how the cocky british tried to twist reality into seeming that their engagement of the westside boys led to a decisive end to that conflict.they grossly underplayed the impact,and contribution of nigerian troops.perhaps we should consider means to effectively convey how the nigerian military put an end to the conflict in the mano union.
ELSEWHERE BEEG EAGLE wrote:
OH…the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. So Africans deserve no credit for their efforts?
I would have believed the story which is to follow if one had not watched the NTA documentary shown on October 1, 2009 in which General Abacha dressed in a blue flowing gown stood on the dais(after he had received a hero’s welcome in Freetown) with President Kabbah as he was sworn in for a second time, post-reinstatement.
Where, when and who did the British REALLY fight against in Sierra Leone? I ask because the archives of the fighting from 1998-1998 as chronicled by the BBC’s Mark Doyle are still available online.
*Were British troops on hand ANYWHERE in Sierra Leone to join the fighting during the 5-14 February 2008 effort by ECOMOG which led to the ouster of the Koroma-RUF junta from power?
*Were the British part of the effort during the fierce street to street fighting to flush out the combination of renegade troops and RUF rebels from Freetown at Xmas 1998/New Year 1999?
*Did they fight the RUF alongside ECOMOG at ANYTIME between 1997 and 1999 at Lungi, Waterloo, Kissy, Port Loko, Kailahun, Kenema, Segbwema, Bo, Koidu, Pujehun and elsewhere?
*Were they party to the Lome Peace Accord of May 1999?
*So they restored Kabbah to power but somehow failed in their own chosen assignment of bringing peace to Iraq and Afghanistan?
This is SIMPLY another affront on the intelligence of Africans
WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THIS?
DAILY TELEGRAPH
By David Blair in Freetown
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne … rtels.html
Published: 5:22PM GMT 27 Feb 2009
Only nine years ago, the capital Freetown risked being overrun by a vicious rebel army which specialised in hacking the arms and legs off their victims. But Tony Blair’s government sent 1,500 Paratroopers and Royal Marines who managed to protect the city, restore an elected government and help open a new era of peace.
Many of these gains could now be undone if Sierra Leone is penetrated by the drugs trade.
“This is one of the biggest threats we face,” said Zainab Bangura, the foreign minister. “With weak institutions, it will corrupt our security services, it will corrupt the judicial system and it will corrupt the whole of society.”
The country is acutely vulnerable. Not only is the airspace and coastline virtually unguarded, the government somehow neglected to ban cocaine smuggling until last year. Before then, trafficking was not an explicit offence.
Widespread corruption also makes law enforcement extremely difficult. In 2007, a large consignment of cocaine landed at Lungi International Airport.
The police helpfully escorted the contraband to Freetown, where the drugs were dispersed, probably for onward trafficking to Europe.
Inspector Ibrahim Samura, the police spokesman, said the response to the more recent drugs flight had been very different.
The biggest drugs trial in West African history has opened in Freetown after the arrival of a light aircraft packed with cocaine worth £30 million.
The smuggling flight, which probably crossed the Atlantic from Venezuela, was another sign that West Africa is becoming the crucial staging post for Latin American cocaine bound for Europe.
The twin-engined Cessna 441, carrying Venezuela’s national flag beneath fake Red Cross insignia, landed at Lungi airport last July with 703kg of cocaine.
To extend its range, 34 containers filled with aviation fuel were in the rear of the plane. By pumping the vital liquid into the engines, the crew had kept the Cessna airborne for the trans-Atlantic flight.
All four men on board, including a Colombian pilot and Venezuelan passenger, were arrested, along with their alleged contacts in Freetown.
President Ernest Bai Koroma’s government hastily banned cocaine smuggling – and pressed retrospective charges against the accused.
When drugs are seized in West Africa, police often sell the contraband back to the smugglers. This time, the cocaine has been kept safe. Police have gathered enough evidence to try 17 men, including seven Latin Americans.
Elsewhere, suspects have bought their way out of jail. So far, all of the accused are still inside Freetown’s Pademba Road prison.
“We are the first West African country to have arrested all those allegedly linked to a plane full of cocaine,” said Inspector Samura. “The cocaine is still here, the alleged culprits are still here and the trial is underway.”
Behind the scenes, however, British officials from the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) have quietly ensured that all of the above has happened. Evidence before the court states that SOCA officers joined Sierra Leone’s police to examine the plane five times, search premises, question the Latin American suspects and provide forensic analysis.
As for the seizure itself, the cocaine is effectively under British protection. Inspector Samura said the drugs were at the international military training facility in the capital.
This fact, ruefully described by one diplomat as the “worst kept secret in Freetown”, has already been reported in the local press. The training centre, commanded by a British officer, is where 58 British soldiers help Sierra Leone’s army. Britain remains Sierra Leone’s biggest bilateral aid donor, giving £40 million last year.
Whenever the alleged smugglers are taken before Freetown’s High Court, the Latin Americans are visibly bewildered by their trial. Everything resembles the Old Bailey, with the judge and lawyers clad in wigs and gowns in stifling heat.
Senior politicians have been mentioned during the trial, notably Ibrahim Kemoh Sesay, the transport minister. His brother, Ahmed, is among the accused.
One defendant claims the transport minister authorised the arrival of the drug flight. Mr Sesay, who protests his innocence, has been suspended from the cabinet. No charges have been brought against him.
A more senior member of the government may have known of the plane’s arrival. He is believed to have met two suspected traffickers inside his office in Freetown. But no investigation has begun.
Mrs Bangura said the cartels had not corrupted the government’s senior levels. “But sooner or later, they will,” she added. “Because they have millions of dollars and you need to be a saint to reject that.”