Samuel Hinga Norman - Kamajors

Kamajors

The Kamajors are a group of traditional hunters from the south and east of the country. They were originally employed by local chiefs, but under the leadership of Hinga Norman were used by President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah in 1996 to replace mercenaries (Executive Outcomes and Sandline International, both of whom helped train the force) as the security force of the government. At that time members of the Sierra Leone Army (SLA), calling themselves the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), were supporting Revolutionary United Front (RUF) leader Foday Sankoh against the Kabbah government. The Kamajors integrated themselves into the ECOMOG (a Nigeria led force) counteroffensive to reinstate Kabbah in 1998 after Freetown was taken by the RUF (backed by Charles Taylor and led by Foday Sankoh) in combination with the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council, led by Johnny Paul Koroma. The force eventually consisted of over 20,000 men, dwarfing the size of the army and the rebel groups.