British Military Intervention in The Sierra Leone Civil War - Mission Expansion

Mission Expansion

In Westminster, the three government departments concerned with the British role in Sierra Leone – the MoD, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and the Department for International Development (DfID) – struggled to agree on the objectives of the military deployment beyond the evacuation, which led to delays in issuing orders, and Richards did not receive precise instructions until after Operation Palliser had commenced. The issuing of rules of engagement was also delayed, and commanders defaulted to those used in Northern Ireland, their most recent relevant experience.

With the evacuation largely complete, the British government turned its attention to the four British UNMOs being held by the RUF. British forces in Freetown helped facilitate the escape of four UNMOs (three British and one from New Zealand) from a UNAMSIL camp at Makeni, which had been besieged by the RUF since 10 RUF fighters had been accepted into the disarmament process. After consulting with the British command in Freetown, the four officers left the camp and covertly passed the RUF line before trekking west. They arrived at the UN base at Mile 91 almost 24 hours later, where they were picked up by an RAF Chinook and flown to Freetown. No longer having the unarmed observers to protect, the Kenyan UNAMSIL detachment at Makeni fought their way out of the siege and proceed west to join other UNAMSIL forces. The three British officers from Makeni having been freed, only one British UNMO – Major Andy Harrison – remained a prisoner of the RUF, and the British government began discretely attempting to establish his location. Harrison and 10 other UNMOs had initially been held by the RUF at the latter's base until Harrison convinced the RUF to allow the observers to join the Indian UNAMSIL contingent at Kailahun.

In addition to the missing UNMOs, the British government also faced political and diplomatic problems. The deployment of British troops to Sierra Leone had lifted morale and halted the RUF advance on Freetown, a side effect of which was to effectively sideline UNAMSIL and there were concerns that violence would resume once the British left. The United Nations and several of the contributing nations to UNAMSIL applied pressure on the British government to integrate its forces into UNAMSIL. However the government lacked faith in the competence of UNAMSIL headquarters and was unwilling to place its troops under UNAMSIL command. The MoD was also reluctant to make a large enough troop contribution for British forces to take command of UNAMSIL (which would have required the deployment of a brigade-sized force), given the armed forces' commitments elsewhere, and thus the British force in Sierra Leone remained outside UNAMISIL. The MoD was also reluctant to commit British troops to an open-ended peacekeeping operation, especially given the opposition in the House of Commons – particularly from the Conservative Party – to the initial deployment to Sierra Leone, though the operation was generally well-received on the international stage.

On 12 May, Baroness Symons, a junior minister in the MoD, told the House of Lords that British forces would remain in Sierra Leone, mainly to ensure the security of Lungi airport while UNAMSIL brought in reinforcements to bring it up to its authorised strength. Soldiers also remained at the evacuation point in Freetown to ensure its security, while others patrolled the streets of Freetown in attempt to reassure residents. They were joined by HMS Illustrious, with her air group, and the ARG, both of which arrived on 14 May. Harriers from Illustrious began flying reassurance patrols over Freetown and the ARG supplemented British firepower, particularly at Lungi, with the provision of artillery. During the following week, the RUF began to remobilise in the north of the country. The UN and the Sierra Leonean government feared that UNAMSIL troops between the RUF and Freetown may not be able to stand up to an assault by the RUF, and so the RAF Chinooks – in the country to conduct the evacuation – were used to ferry reinforcements from Lungi as they arrived. Meanwhile, President Ahmad Kabbah formed an alliance of militia groups (including the self-styled Civil Defence Force and the West Side Boys) and the remnants of the SLA, totalling around 6,000 personnel, to assist UNAMSIL forces in blocking the RUF advance. The British also provided reconnaissance for UNAMSIL using ground-based signals and intelligence personnel and special forces as well as flights by Harriers and a Nimrod R1.

The RUF continued to advance, resulting in sporadic confrontations with UNAMSIL and government forces. However, it was not until 17 May that British forces came into direct contact with the RUF. The Parachute Regiment's Pathfinder Platoon had stationed itself at Lungi Lol, a village 12 miles (19 km) north of Freetown close to Lungi airport. The RUF were repulsed, having suffered 30 casualties. According to Richards, the confrontation – and the capture of the RUF leader Foday Sankoh later the same day – provided an "immense" psychological victory and a deterrent against further attacks. The resultant in-fighting within the RUF provided enough of a pause for the MoD to order a rotation of forces deployed in Sierra Leone. The 1 PARA battlegroup was ordered back to the United Kingdom to resume its spearhead role as the permanent stand-by battalion that would form the basis of any emergency deployment, while 42 Commando, Royal Marines, came ashore to replace the paras.

In Whitehall, the British government laid out its longer-term objectives for the military intervention in Sierra Leone on 23 May. These were: to establish sustainable peace and security in Sierra Leone, to support UNAMSIL operations, to prevent another humanitarian disaster in Freetown, to see the release of captive UN personnel, and finally to avoid British casualties and devise an exit strategy that did not undermine UNAMSIL or the Sierra Leonean government but which avoided mission creep.

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