General information
Type of Incompatibility: Not applicable
Date of first battle related death: 1991-03-20
Date of conflict reached 25 battle releated deaths: 1991-04-10
Comment on conflict reached 25 battle releated deaths: RUF first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1991, when the one-sided violence resulted in at least 25 civilian deaths. The threshold was reached in April that year when the group killed at least 60 civilians in the town of Koindu.
Annual information
This section contains annual information systematically collected by the UCDP.
1991
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 615 |
| Best | 604 |
| Low | 604 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1992
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 319 |
| Best | 289 |
| Low | 289 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1993
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 209 |
| Best | 202 |
| Low | 202 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1994
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 1967 |
| Best | 1390 |
| Low | 1390 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1995
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 2560 |
| Best | 1645 |
| Low | 1645 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1996
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 588 |
| Best | 350 |
| Low | 350 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1997
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 245 |
| Best | 125 |
| Low | 125 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1998
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 673 |
| Best | 650 |
| Low | 650 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
1999
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 232 |
| Best | 232 |
| Low | 232 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2000
Primary Parties: RUF - Civilians
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 476 |
| Best | 476 |
| Low | 476 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
2001
Primary Parties: -
Dimension: One-sided
| Estimated Fatalities | |
|---|---|
| High | 23 |
| Best | 23 |
| Low | 23 |
Numbers include fatalities for all dyads both active and inactive for this year
Conflict Archive
This section contains annual information no longer systematically collected by the UCDP.
1991 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: The RUF carried out one-sided violence against civilians in 1991 as it launched its insurgency against the Sierra Leone government. In several cases, civilians were killed in connection with raids carried out to loot food and other supplies. The targets also included people who refused to join the rebels, as well as those perceived to support the government. A large number of those killed in 1991 were Muslims associated with the ethnic group of Samuel Doe, the previous president of Liberia against whom Charles Taylor’s NPFL, the RUF’s Liberian ally, had launched its rebellion.
Terminated: NO
1992 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1993 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1994 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: The RUF’s one-sided activities crossed the 25 deaths threshold in 1994 as early as in January, after fierce raids on villages and towns led to the deaths of over 100 civilians in the southern region of Bo.
A ceasefire had been called between the government of Sierra Leone and RUF in late 1993, after the RUF had suffered large-scale defeats at the hands of the government forces. RUF however used this opportunity to regroup and launched an offensive in January of 1994. Through this offensive RUF seized territories in the eastern, southern and northern territories of Sierra Leone, causing a geographical spread of the conflict. During and in the wake of these attacks, serious human rights violations and one-sided violence took place.
The reason for the indiscriminate attacks and killings of civilians are by some viewed as being the result of the RUF’s strategy of creating an image of strength and resolve, through causing widespread destruction. The complete breakdown of discipline within the armed forces of Sierra Leone also severely weakened the defences of villages and cities, leaving them open to the RUF’s looting, burning and killing. The rebels’ need to secure diamond fields to pay for their campaign is likely to also have played a part in the one-sided killings, through a strategy of driving away civilians from the mining areas.
The one-sided killings recorded in 1994 take on the characteristics of what was to become the common modus operandi of the RUF; primarily raids on villages and cities and road ambushes on civilians. The RUF would commonly surround villages and attack them with AK47s and machetes. They would thereafter kill, rape or abduct civilians, and loot and burn houses and property.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: Estimating the number of deaths in one-sided violence in 1994 is complicated for a number of reasons. Primarily due to news reporting being lacking, at times making it hard to distinguish between one-sided deaths and battle-related deaths. Secondly, the increasingly undisciplined Sierra Leonean army and its’ throngs of volunteer forces also engaged in one-sided violence and pillaging, making it difficult in some instances to determine if RUF or other groups/elements carried out specific attacks on civilians. This is especially true for those incidents in which RUF combatants made use of army uniforms, and since volunteer forces of the government are not always distinguishable from the RUF’s rag-tag cadres.
Terminated: NO
1995 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: At the beginning of 1995 the conflict between the government of Sierra Leone and the RUF had turned in favour of the rebels, with the RUF effectively cutting off Freetown from many of Sierra Leone’s eastern and southern provinces by taking strategic towns and roads. The forces of the government were in disarray, and the RUF’s advance on Freetown was only stopped at the end of the year.
During and in the wake of these RUF offensives the rebel group carried out substantial one-sided violence against the civilian population. As in 1994 the main goals (if any can be derived) appear to be to secure diamond-mining areas through terror, to show resolve and power through the killings, and to loot for personal gain. The intensity of the RUF’s violence appears to be somewhat lower than in 1994 (looking at the ‘best’ category), but this observation may be misleading, since the lines of distinction between RUF rebels and rebellious soldiers in the armed forces are blurred to a very high extent throughout the year. The almost complete breakdown of discipline within the Sierra Leone army led to many soldiers engaging in looting, killing and raping, and the term ‘rebel’ came to encompass both the RUF and such disloyal elements. Coding throughout 1995 was therefore increasingly difficult. See ‘Comment on deaths’ for further details.
Nevertheless, the RUF crossed the 25 deaths threshold also in 1995, through continuing to attack cities and villages. RUF cadres would attack with automatic weapons and machetes, killing and raping civilians, and looting and burning houses and property.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: The wide discrepancy between the best and the high estimates is the result of mainly three factors. Firstly, the almost complete breakdown of the Sierra Leone army led to disloyal soldiers and volunteer forces engaging in killing and looting, thus also being labelled by the press and watchdogs as ‘rebels’, blurring the distinction between the RUF and these elements. Secondly, RUF also began to wear army uniforms at times, and this –combined with the rag-tag appearance of many volunteers and disloyal soldiers- made it even more difficult to correctly attribute one-sided violence to a specific group. Thirdly, the rebel advances and the subsequent isolation of villages and cities made accurate (or any) news reporting increasingly difficult. It is therefore highly likely that several more civilian deaths took place than those recorded for 1995.
Terminated: NO
1996 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: In 1996 a peace agreement signed by the RUF and Sierra Leone President Kabbah failed to end the fighting between the parties, and RUF continued to be active as a one-sided actor.
The elections that brought Kabbah to power were held in March 1996, and in the early months of the year RUF carried out large-scale mutilations (cutting of arms and hands) of civilians, and also killed several in what appeared to be violence in relation to the upcoming elections. Mutilations also continued after the elections, and as the implementation of the peace agreement signed by Sankoh and Kabbah began to fail. Such mutilations and killings should thus be seen in the light of the RUF wanting to prevent people from voting, and after the elections wanting to punish those who did.
RUF’s more commonplace one-sided violence also continued unabated in 1996. However, just as in 1995, the problems of correctly attributing deaths to specific groups were present in 1996, causing wide discrepancies in the deaths thought to have been caused by RUF. See ‘Comment on deaths’ for more details. The RUF continued to attack villages and towns, looting and burning them to ground whilst attacking the inhabitants with automatic weapons and machetes. Rape and abductions continued to be rampant, during attacks on villages as well as during ambushes of civilians.
The RUF is not coded as being a one-sided actor in 1997, due to the group seizing government power together with the AFRC from 25 May 1997. The RUF’s one-sided violence before 25 May does not reach the 25 deaths threshold, but the joint RUF/AFRC government does following on the coup. RUF is therefore active only when being the government side.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: As in 1995 the discrepancy between the best and high categories is fairly wide. In some respects this is caused by a lack of reliable news reporting, making it hard to distinguish one-sided deaths from civilian deaths in battle-related incidents. More importantly however is the blurring of the lines between the RUF and disloyal elements of Sierra Leone’s disrupted army. The RUF would oftentimes appear in army uniforms, whilst ex-Sierra Leone army soldiers would wear civilian clothing and engage in killing and looting. This leads to difficulties in attributing deaths to a specific group for witnesses and news reporters, making coding problematic.
Terminated: NO
1997 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
1998 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: After a brief spate of being in control of the government from 25 May 1997 (together with the AFRC) the RUF was ousted from government in March of 1998 by Nigerian ECOMOG forces, and Kabbah was reinstated as President. The defeat at the hands of the Kamajors militias and Nigerian ECOGMOG forces put severe pressure on the RUF, which retreated to its jungle strongholds in the eastern parts of the country only to return in force at the end of the year. The RUF continued to attack and kill civilians; when retreating and when going on the offensive.
As was commonplace for the RUF’s modus operandi of one-sided violence the group turned to abuses against the civilian population when facing battlefield losses. Supported by the remnants of the AFRC forces that seized government power together with RUF in 1997, the rebels carried out large-scale attacks against villages and cities in the mining districts of eastern Sierra Leone, presumably to retain control of the diamond mines and to show resolve, but also as a part of ‘Operation No Living Thing’; an operation initiated by Sankoh’s deputy Sam Bockarie with the stated objective of avenging the RUF’s oust from Freetown by “killing everyone in the country”. Through these actions, and when the RUF began to once again gain territory towards the end of the year, one-sided violence in Sierra Leone reached a new level of intensity. The number of deaths attributed to the RUF are however not significantly higher than in many of the preceding years, but this can be explained by difficulties in attributing deaths to specific groups. Sierra Leone was by this time wrecked also by ex-SLA bands and other bandits and rebels that also killed civilians. RUF’s one-sided actions once again plunged Sierra Leone into chaos, with thousands of refugees entering Freetown to escape atrocities and the RUF onslaught.
RUF would commonly surround or raid villages and cities, and kill the inhabitants by means of automatic rifles or machetes. Rape and abductions continued to be rampant, as were the burning of houses and looting.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: Looking at the estimates for 1998 the RUF’s one-sided violence would appear to not be significantly higher than in the preceding years of the RUF’s activity. There are however severe difficulties in recording one-sided deaths in 1998, mainly because a plethora of small rebel groups and outfits of bandits roamed the country, killing civilians, as well as remnants of the AFRC engaging in such activities. Many violent incidents are because of this, and because of difficulties in distinguishing between the different groups, reported as being perpetrated by ‘rebels’, making it difficult to assign responsibility for civilian deaths. In the light of the launch of RUF’s ‘Operation No Living Thing’ it is likely that the true numbers of civilians killed by RUF in one-sided violence are significantly higher than the best estimate.
Terminated: NO
1999 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: At the beginning of 1999 RUF’s ‘Operation No Living Thing’ came to a climax, with the violent infiltration of and attack on Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, by RUF and incorporated AFRC remnant troops. RUF combatants intermingled with civilian refugee flows entering Freetown, after which they launched a ferocious attack on the government of Sierra Leone and its ECOMOG protectors. Widespread atrocities such as raping, pillaging, mutilations and killings took place alongside regular fighting with the Nigerian ECOMOG forces. One-sided deaths during this attack (in January) make up the vast majority of RUF’s one-sided killings during 1999. The intensity of one-sided killings by the RUF also reached its highest intensity yet, when comparing the best estimates for the number of deaths. The RUF’s assault on Freetown also cost civilians dearly in battles with ECOMOG, with probably thousands being killed in battle-related incidents. After a few weeks the RUF were dislodged from Freetown, and once again retreated towards the bush, carrying out more atrocities along the way.
The situation de-escalated somewhat in terms of one-sided killings as yet another peace agreement was signed in mid-1999.
Comment on Yearly Battle Related Deaths: When RUF attacked Freetown in January of 1999 they were joined by the remnants of their AFRC allies. These two rebel groups were so intertwined that separating their actions from each other to assign responsibility became very difficult. However, most sources point towards the conclusion that the AFRC combatants ostensibly functioned as integrated into the RUF, and followed orders from its leadership. Attacks conducted by the RUF and the AFRC jointly are therefore attributed to the RUF’s activity. Probably thousands more civilians than the ones recorded in the one-sided data were also killed in the attack on Freetown, but these deaths are, when possible, attributed to the state-based categories of UCDP violence.
Terminated: NO
2000 Conflict Archive
Comment on Activity: After the strengthened ECOMOG forces and soldiers loyal to the government of Sierra Leone had beaten back the RUF attack on Freetown in early 1999, and also signed a peace agreement in July of the same year, RUF was under severe pressure. The rebels retreated back towards the eastern and northern parts of Sierra Leone, but had lost many men in the battle for Freetown.
Due to the severe losses suffered, and the peace agreement that began to be implemented throughout the year, RUF activity dropped significantly, and only a few incidents were recorded for the year. The group was more or less defeated, and as demobilisation began the soldiers of the outfit disappeared. The year 2000 thus marks the end of RUF’s state-based conflict with the government of Sierra Leone, and the RUF’s one-sided activities.
The few incidents that were recorded followed the common pattern established by RUF; attacking and burning villages, and killing civilians with machetes or automatic weapons.
Terminated: NO
2001 Conflict Archive
Terminated: NO
