Former Sierra Leonean president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, dies

Former President of Sierra Leone Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has died after a protracted illness. He died yesterday March 13th at his home in Sierra Leone.

"Former president Kabbah died at his home around 3:50 pm and the body has been transferred to the... funeral home in Freetown,"a statement read


President Kabbah would be remembered for helping to bring peace back to war torn Sierra Leone during his tenure. He was 82 years old.

May his soul rest in peace. Amen.


Below is his biography.

Born Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, on February 16, 1932, in Pendembu, Kailahun District, Eastern Province, Sierra Leone; married; wife's name, Patricia Tucker. Politics: Sierra Leone People's Party. Religion: Muslim.
Education: Received degree from University College of Wales.
Politics: Sierra Leone People's Party.
Religion: Muslim.
Career
Called to the Bar (Gray's Inn), London; district commander for Moyamba, Kono, Bombali and Kambia Districts in Sierra Leone; Ministry of Social Welfare, Freetown, Sierra Leone, deputy secretary; Ministry of Education, Freetown, permanent secretary; Ministry of Trade and Industry, Freetown, permanent secretary; joined staff of United Nations; served as UNDP representative in Lesotho, 1973, Tanzania and Uganda, 1976, and Zimbabwe, 1980; appointed head of Eastern and Southern Africa Division in the United Nations, 1979; served as deputy personnel director and director of the Division of Administration and Management, 1981. Elected president of Sierra Leone, March, 1996, and March, 1998; serves as minister of defense of Sierra Leone.
Life's Work
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah returned home to his native Sierra Leone to retire after a career with the United Nations as an economist, but was drafted into the country's movement toward a multiparty democracy during the mid-1990s. In 1996, he was elected president in Sierra Leone's first free elections since its independence. However, the ongoing civil strife that had plagued Sierra Leone in recent times did not end. After a 1997 coup, Kabbah was forced to flee the country for several months, but returned to its capital, Freetown, in 1998 to great fanfare. Many Sierra Leoneans place great store in Kabbah as the symbol for achieving a peaceful and prosperous future.
Sierra Leone is a strife-torn, but mineral-rich West African nation with an area of 28,000 square miles and a population of five million people. In 1999, it was estimated that almost half that number had been forced to flee to neighboring countries as a result of the civil war. Nearly all citizens are from one of thirteen tribes, with Temne and Mende the largest of them. The African captives on board the Amistad slave ship, who mutinied and attempted to return to Africa in the 1840s, but instead were tricked into U.S. waters and arrested.