Foday Saybana Sankoh

He was a close ally of Charles Taylor who was convicted of crimes against humanity by the Special Court of Sierra Leone on charges relating to his and Compaoré's support for Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front...

His rise owed much to his cultivation of RUF leader Foday Saybana Sankoh to whom he was very close...

Liberia and Sierra Leone where Compaoré backed convicted war criminal Charles Taylor and the late rebel leader Foday Sankoh are not viable options while Chadian ex-President Hissène Habré's trial in Senegal shows that is not a possible destination...

It concluded that he was an ally and envoy of both Charles Ghankay Taylor the Liberian ex-President and warlord now serving 50 years for crimes against humanity and Foday Sankoh the bloodthirsty leader of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)...

Friend FodayOne of those he met in Libya was Foday Sankoh who later became a close confidant...

‘The witness stated that Ibrahima Bah was a liaison with Charles Taylor and the witness was present in 1999 when Ibrahima Bah who said he was sent by Mr Taylor gave $USD 20 000 to Mr [Foday] Sankoh in Lomé… Prosecution Witness TF 1-567 an RUF [Revolutionary United Front] member testified that Foday Sankoh said that Ibrahima Bah from Burkina Faso was his friend that Ibrahima Bah was with the NPFL [National Patriotic Front of Liberia] and that he was helping the establishment of the RUF movement as an agent for the RUF...

He testified that Ibrahima Bah “is now fully with Foday Sankoh based on even evidence before this court” and that he had no reason to doubt that Ibrahima Bah helped Foday Sankoh coordinate RUF affairs outside of Sierra Leone between 1996 and 1999’...

They also have witness statements describing how these arms were transported to Taylor's militias and to Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front in Sierra Leone plus other military and commercial links between Compaoré Sankoh and Taylor...

RUF leader Foday Sankoh had been with Taylor in Libya in the late 1980s as both men prepared armed forces for wars in their respective countries with the support of their sponsor Libyan leader Moammar el Gadaffi...

On 21 July he told the Court that his relationship with RUF leader Sankoh was restricted to a period between August 1991 and May 1992: 'My relationship with Foday Sankoh was for security purposes to fight ULIMO [the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy] in Sierra Leone so as to prevent them fighting in Liberia...

A peace treaty between the Sierra Leonean government and the RUF in July 1999 the Lomé Accord resulted in RUF leader Foday Sankoh sharing power in Sierra Leone...

Despite international condemnation (though Paris hardly said a word) Compaoré continued to supply arms to Taylor and the late Sierra Leonean militia leader Colonel Foday Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front...

It was not the judges' fault that four of the most important indictees have died: the RUF's top two leaders founder Foday Sankoh and Sam 'Mosquito' Bockarie; AFRC leader Johnny Paul Koroma; and CDF leader Chief Samuel Hinga Norman...

Nor did Blair have anything to say about Gadaffi's training and sponsorship of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia and Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front which rampaged across Sierra Leone committing atrocities and smuggling out diamonds to Libya and other northerly destinations...