Civil War
RUF rebels fighting in the Sierra Leone Civil War captured Mattru Jong at the end of January, 1995. They faced little military resistance as the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had already withdrawn from the town. Earlier in January the RUF had briefly taken over the Sierra Rutile Company mine in Imperi Chiefdom, Bonthe District, about 10 miles north west of Mattru Jong, but it was recaptured by the end of January. Most of the RUF forces who captured Mattru Jong entered from the direction of Imperi Chiefdom but some may have come from Sumbaya, Lugbu Chiefdom, Bo District, about fifteen miles east of Mattru Jong. Upon settling in Mattru Jong, the RUF set up its own governing structures in the town. The RUF stole medical supplies from the hospital and used it as a training base. Another base known as "Camp Lion" was set up at Gambia Palm Oil Plantation, nine miles from Mattru Jong. The RUF remained in Mattru Jong for eight months until it was recaptured by the SLA in October, 1995.
Read more about this topic: Mattru Jong
Famous quotes by civil war:
“During the Civil War the area became a refuge for service- dodging Texans, and gangs of bushwhackers, as they were called, hid in its fastnesses. Conscript details of the Confederate Army hunted the fugitives and occasional skirmishes resulted.”
—Administration in the State of Texa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“He was high and mighty. But the kindest creature to his slaves—and the unfortunate results of his bad ways were not sold, had not to jump over ice blocks. They were kept in full view and provided for handsomely in his will. His wife and daughters in the might of their purity and innocence are supposed never to dream of what is as plain before their eyes as the sunlight, and they play their parts of unsuspecting angels to the letter.”
—Anonymous Antebellum Confederate Women. Previously quoted by Mary Boykin Chesnut in Mary Chesnut’s Civil War, edited by C. Vann Woodward (1981)