Johnny Paul Koroma

Johnny Paul Koroma
Head of State of Sierra Leone
In office
May 25, 1997 – February 6, 1998
DeputyFoday Sankoh
Solomon Musa[1]
Preceded byAhmed Tejan Kabbah
Succeeded byAhmed Tejan Kabbah
Personal details
Born(1960-05-09)May 9, 1960
Tombodu, Kono District, British Sierra Leone
DiedJune 1, 2003(2003-06-01) (aged 43) or August 11, 2017(2017-08-11) (aged 57)
Liberia or Sierra Leone
Political partyPeace and Liberation Party
Military service
Branch/serviceSierra Leone Armed Forces
Years of service1985–1998
RankMajor
Battles/warsSierra Leone Civil War

Major Johnny Paul Koroma (9 May 1960 – 1 June 2003/11 August 2017) was a Sierra Leonean military officer who was the head of state of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998.

A member of the Limba people, Koroma began his military career in 1985, and quickly rose through the ranks of the Sierra Leonean army. Following the start of the Sierra Leone Civil War in 1991, Koroma commanded government forces against the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel group. As the war continued, he was arrested in 1996 after being suspected of plotting a coup against President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. The following year, he was freed from prison following a coup overthrowing Kabbah, and became the leader of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) military junta. Koroma allied himself with the RUF and presided over mass looting, murder and rape against civilians, aid workers, and peacekeepers over his roughly nine months in power. In 1998, an intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) ousted him, and the war ended in 2002.

In 2003, Koroma was indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for war crimes, crimes against humanities and other offenses for his role in the war. Koroma reportedly fled into exile in Liberia where he was murdered later that year. Other sources claim that he died in Sierra Leone in 2017.

  1. ^ Jalloh, Charles Chernor; Meisenberg, Simon (2012-11-09). The Law Reports of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (2 vols.): Volume I: Prosecutor v. Brima, Kamara and Kanu (The AFRC Case). ISBN 9789004223981.

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