Draft:1999 Freetown attack

Beginning on January 6, 1999, and lasting until January 22, the Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone committed a massacre against the population of Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. The attack, which was part of operations named by the rebels "Operation No Living Thing" (among other names), resulted in the deaths of thousands, both combatants and civilians.

Background and prelude to the assault
The names "Operation No Living Thing" (also referred to as "Non-Living Thing") and "Operation Pay Yourself" had been used already in the area of Koidu. "Pay Yourself" had been a systematic looting campaign, in which, according to a Human Rights Watch report prior to the January 1999 attack, "civilians were forced to place their belongings into two piles, one for civilians to keep, to 'pay themselves,' and one to be handed over to the soldiers."

After a feint attack on New Lebanon, the RUF launched an assault on Koidu, a major diamond mining settlement, seizing it in mid-December of 1998. The Nigerian soldiers defending the settlement were routed. Diplomatic sources reported that 2,000 Nigerian soldiers arrived in Freetown on 23 December, 1998, along with three Alpha aircraft, to reinforce the defenders there. The city of Port Loko was attacked by the RUF on 30 December, 1999, with the RUF seizing parts of the town and ECOMOG keeping the other parts. The ECOMOG force subsequently claimed to have flushed the RUF out of Port Loko, inflicting heavy casualties upon them.

Even around a week before the attack, RUF forces had infiltrated Freetown disguised within waves of civilian refugees.

Assault on city
On January 6, 1999, the AFRC/RUF forces launched their invasion of Freetown. They invaded with a 10,000-strong mob of both civilians and AFRC/RUF fighters disguised as civilians. They identified weak points in the generally overstretched and undermanned ECOMOG defenses, and quickly occupied Freetown's city center and eastern suburbs, seizing the State House, the President's residence, and burning down the Nigerian embassy and the main police station. They also released prisoners from Pademba Road Prison, including former members of the AFRC who were convicted of treason. The prisoners freed included Foday Sankoh, as intended in the operation. However, the RUF operations in western Freetown, where ECOMOG's headquarters were, were stalled by stiff ECOMOG resistance and an eventual counteroffensive.

The rebels had a strategy to prevent the ECOMOG forces from firing at the rebels. They sent civilian women and children around with weaponry to get other civilians outside, effectively making a massive human shield between the ECOMOG forces and the rebels. As a result, the ECOMOG forces remained reluctant to shoot into a crowd of civilians; This enabled the rebels to advance easily, and before long, the rebels were able to hold some parts of the city for about two weeks, and large-scale atrocities in the city began.

By January 7, ECOMOG held control over the western portions of Freetown and the airport. With the rebel offensive, President Kabbah had met with Foday Sankoh to form a ceasefire, which Kabbah claimed Sankoh had agreed to.

Throughout the attack, civilians were forced to stay in their homes in a situation that the World Food Programme described as a "de facto 24 hour curfew"- civilians faced starvation as a result.

Civilian atrocities
As the RUF and AFRC gained control of Freetown, its rebel soldiers began committing violent atrocities against the civilian population of Freetown. Looting, arson, and massacres were reported across the city, along with amputations. The main violence was organized into 3 operations: "Burn House" for arson, "Pay Yourself" for looting, and "No Living Thing" for massacres.

Killings and sexual violence
As a part of Operation No Living Thing, Revolutionary United Front rebels began a series of massacres in Freetown after they attacked the city. Rebels indiscriminately shot civilians found in the city. According to a former AFRC commander, Alimamy Bobson Sesay, a "death zone" was declared in an area covering King Tom, the State House, and the Tower Hill. Any civilians or opposing soldiers found there were to be killed immediately. Large-scale killings were reported in the area afterwards. At Kingtome, a unit of ECOMOG forces were observed there- an AFRC unit was sent to neutralize it, and afterwards, murdered civilians in the area. Many young women were also brought to the State House and raped. Frequent mutilations were also reported, and hundreds of people were killed and maimed.

Many attacks on journalists were also reported. 8 journalists were reported to have been murdered by the rebels, some with their families, and all brutally. Journalists who reported on the rebels’ behaviors were targeted, and rebels often began a manhunt for them.

Organized massacres
Many organized massacres by the rebels were reported. 2 main massacres were officially reported to human rights groups, spanning the entire duration of the attack. The massacres were rather limited in frequency, however, and it appears that not all of the rebel leadership supported it.

One massacre occurred on January 22. According to the reports, 66 civilians were murdered at the Rogbalan Mosque in Kissy. Christians and Muslims alike had gathered at the mosque in search of safety. Among the rebels who committed the massacre was, reportedly, a ten-year-old child soldier. Those who attempted to escape were also shot. At the end of the massacre, which lasted about 45 minutes, rebels were ordered to loot belongings from the dead civilians.

Another attack occurred in the violence (although its exact date remained unknown), also in Kissy, in a large house. The rebels rounded up 200 people and split them into groups of about 60; they then sent them into the house, each group being sent into a room. In the first room, when the door was opened at the order of the rebels, the rebels began shooting. The second door was locked by the civilians inside, but they were forced to open it due to threats made for burning the room by the rebels. However, prior to the completion of the killings, another rebel commander saw the violence and ordered the killing to stop. Only 4 deaths were reported in the first room, but many were wounded.

Arson
Arson attacks by the RUF and AFRC were severe and on a large scale. A large portion of them took place as the ECOMOG troops began a counter-attack, and as the RUF withdrew from the capital, they set fire to many neighborhoods. This left over 51,000 people homeless. The rebels often trapped civilians in houses that they subsequently burnt down, and shot at those who attempted to escape. Those who attempted to rescue them were threatened with death, and were forced to abandon the victims. Many medical facilities were looted and/or burned. Over 5,700 homes and residential buildings were reported to have been burned to the ground. 80% of the residential buildings in the area were destroyed, and about 65% in the densely populated Kissy area were destroyed. Damage to the factories of Freetown resulted in the loss of about 5000 jobs.

Looting
Looting was made as a part of Operation “Pay Yourself”. It apparently had already been ongoing during the outbreak of the Freetown violence, but likely expanded during the attack. One description of aspects of the operation by Human Rights Watch says that the AFRC/RUF would set up roadblocks and force the civilians to split their belongings between their most precious ones, which were given to the rebels, and other items, which the civilians “[paid] themselves”. However, that was not the only type of looting done by the rebels; a hospital was also raided, its patients robbed and removed, and once injured rebels were healed, the hospital as a whole was looted. Many individuals across Freetown were abducted and used to carry loot.