SUMMARY
WSB (West Side Boys), also known as the West Side Niggaz or West Side Junglers, was a splinter group from the AFRC that was active in a conflict against the Government of Sierra Leone in 2000 (see Government of Sierra Leone – WSB). At the beginning of the nineties, Sierra Leone experienced an explosion of violence driven by a government failure to combat corruption and develop a functioning economic sector with effective and legitimate bureaucracy or democratic freedoms. Deliberate targeting of civilians was also a notably prevalent and brutal form of violence employed by multiple actors during this context. The WSB emerged towards the end of this turbulent period as conflict dynamics were changing and steps were being made towards stabilizing the country.
The WSB aimed to remove governance based on gerontocracy and patronage, perceiving themselves as a revolution for the youth. However, their criminal dealings were significant and could also be seen to have overshadowed their political motivations.
Originally, the WSB emerged as a faction within the AFRC that escaped to Kono when the AFRC was driven out of the capital in early 1998 and their rank and file troops were forced to congregate around the commanders they were closest to (see Government of Sierra Leone – AFRC). Despite being separated from the majority of the AFRC fighters, which had escaped to Koinadugu District, the WSB faction remained loyal to AFRC and its leader, Major Johnny Paul Koroma. During spring 2000, they even fought in support of the government on Koroma’s orders, after he endorsed the peace process and backed the government. However, the faction formally splintered from AFRC in the summer, motivated by a government offer to integrate only combatants that had previously been government soldiers into the Sierra Leone army. Many eligible fighters took up this reintegration offer but those who lacked the eligibility requirements felt abandoned. As a result, these remaining members of the faction comprised the WSB, which is coded in the UCDP dataset as an independent splinter group from August 2000.
The WSB gained sizeable support amongst urban and socially-marginalized youth groups. Although its membership formed initially from AFRC units that had escaped to the district of Kono after the AFRC lost control of the government early in 1998, this broadened. Others from Freetown and Makeni joined them, often bringing their families and dependents too. Most WSB members had only civilian backgrounds; many were either former criminals, drug addicts or children still. Troop size estimates ranged from 200 to 1000; these estimates may have included women and children.
WSB members, including the leadership, were known for using drugs, being drunk and wearing unusual clothing such as wigs for females. This led to the group earning a reputation for using extreme or random violence. Check points, looting and ambushes were used to maintain a supply of arms, ammunition and food resources. The WSB also ran illegal trading operations in goods such as diamonds, drugs and guns. This even went to the extent of a trading hub becoming established around the WSB-controlled area around the Okra Hills with formalized permits having to be purchased for traders to travel through the zone.
The WSB was strongest around Masiaka with their base behind the Okra Hills, in Magbeni and Gberi Bana; this area became known as the “West Side”, “West Side Jungle” or “West Side Camp”. Although this was a partial explanation, the popularity of American rap music by Tupac Shakur was the main reason for their name “West Side” Boys.
The initial WSB leaders were mainly drawn from the village of Wilberforce and had military backgrounds from the Sierra Leone Army. “Brigadier” Foday Kallay was leader of the WSB and other key commanders of the group were Ibrahim “Bazzy” Kamara, who established the WSB main base behind Okra Hills, and Hassan “Bomblast” Bangura.
