Revolutionary United Front

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was a rebel group that fought a failed eleven-year war in Sierra Leone, beginning in 1991 and ending in 2002. It later transformed into a political party, which still exists today. The three most senior surviving leaders, Issa Sesay, Morris Kallon, and Augustine Gbao, were convicted in February 2009 of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The RUF initially coalesced as a group of Sierra Leoneans who led elements of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia across the Liberian border. Their goal was to replicate Charles Taylor's earlier success in toppling the Liberian government.

The RUF was created by Foday Sankoh, of Temne background, and some allies, Abu Kanu, Rashid Mansaray, with substantial assistance from Charles Taylor of Liberia. Initially, the RUF was popular with Sierra Leoneans, many of whom resented a Freetown elite seen as corrupt and looked forward to promised free education and health care and equitable sharing of diamond revenues. However, the RUF developed a reputation internationally for its terrible cruelty towards the civilian population during its decade-long struggle, especially its practice of hacking off limbs to intimidate and spread terror among the population, and its widespread use of child soldiers.

When it was first formed, the RUF put forward the slogan, "No More Slaves, No More Masters. Power and Wealth to the People." It shared certain similarities to other revolutionary left-wing and socialist organizations, despite never describing itself as explicitly Marxist. The RUF published a pamphlet entitled "Footpaths to Democracy: Toward a New Sierra Leone", which contained references to social justice and pan-Africanism.

Foday Sankoh did not stand by his earlier promises of equitably sharing diamond revenues and used these funds to buy arms for himself. With a significant area of the diamond mines under the control of the rebel party, the RUF became singularly focused on protecting its resource base.

Sierra Leone's economy collapsed. Ordinary citizens became trapped between the cruelty of RUF troops and starvation. After a coup by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) in 1997, the RUF and AFRC created a joint junta to control the country before being evicted from the capital by the intervention of a Nigerian-led West African force that reinstated President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The war is estimated to have cost the lives of about 200,000 people.^{[citation needed]}

Child soldiers were heavily recruited in the Sierra Leone Civil War; a total of 11,000 are thought to have participated in the conflict. Most were used for attacks on villages as well as guard duty for diamond fields and weapons stockpiles. The RUF made extensive use of child soldiers.

Thousands of abducted boys and girls were forced to serve as soldiers or as prostitutes, and those chosen to be fighters were sometimes forced to murder their parents. Guerrillas frequently carved the initials "RUF" on their chests, and officers reportedly rubbed cocaine into open cuts on their troops to make them maniacal and fearless. Before some battles and raids, the children would be given mixtures of cocaine and gunpowder. The gunpowder mixture was called "brown-brown" and it allowed the cocaine to flow more freely through the blood stream.