Solomon Musa
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Solomon Anthony James Musa, also known as SAJ Musa, (born 1966 in
Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
,
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
– died January 1999) was an important military and political figure in the
Sierra Leone Civil War The Sierra Leone Civil War (1991–2002), or the Sierra Leonean Civil War, was a civil war in Sierra Leone that began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Liberia, Liberian dictato ...
.


Overview

In late April 1992, the
Sierra Leone Army The Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) are the armed forces of Sierra Leone, responsible for the territorial security of Sierra Leone's borders and defending the national interests of Sierra Leone, within the framework of the 1991 Si ...
was in disarray. They had not been paid their monthly wages for three months, they were hungry, and morale was very low. Along with around 100 others, Lt. Solomon Musa and
Valentine Strasser Valentine Esegragbo Melvine Strasser (born 26 April 1967) is an ex-military leader who served as Heads of Government of Sierra Leone, head of state of Sierra Leone from 1992 to 1996. Previously a junior military officer he became the world's yo ...
went to
Freetown Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean and is located in the Western Area of the country. Freetown is Sierra Leone's major urban, economic, financial, cultural, educational and p ...
, the capital of
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
to protest against president
Joseph Momoh Major General Joseph Saidu Momoh, OOR, OBE (January 26, 1937 – August 3, 2003) served as President of Sierra Leone from November 1985 to 29 April 1992. Early life and education Joseph Saidu Momoh was born on January 26, 1937, in Binkolo, B ...
. The situation escalated to a coup, and in the confusion Strasser emerged as chairman of the National Provisional Ruling Council, and leader of Sierra Leone. During the four-year reign of the young Strasser, Musa played the role of Strasser's deputy, advisor and henchman. In December 1992, Musa was responsible for the execution of a group of Momoh's supporters, including Bambay Kamara,
Yahya Kanu Colonel Yahya Kanu (born in Magburaka, Tonkolili District, Sierra Leone, died 29 December 1992) Kanu was a loyalist to president Joseph Saidu Momoh, and his position in the coup is unclear. He was first reported by Reuters to have led the coup, bu ...
, and Colonel K. M. S. Dumbaya, who were accused of organizing a counter-coup against Strasser, although the trio had been in jail since May. During the period from November 1992 to 5 July 1993, Musa served as Chairman of the Council of State Secretaries. He and his wife, Tina, left the country, allegedly at gunpoint, after a series of arguments with Strasser. After this, they lived in Ladywood, Birmingham, UK, where they were given refugee status, a Local Authority house, and a UN grant to enable Musa to study at Birmingham University. When
Johnny Paul Koroma Major Johnny Paul Koroma (born 9 May 1960; declared dead 1 June 2003) was the head of state of Sierra Leone from May 1997 to February 1998. Youth and education Koroma was born to Limba people (Sierra Leone), Limba parents in Tombodu, in the ...
, of the
Armed Forces Revolutionary Council The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was a group of Sierra Leone soldiers that allied itself with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in the late 1990s. While the AFRC briefly controlled the country in 1998, it was driven from the cap ...
removed elected president
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (February 16, 1932 – March 13, 2014) was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Ka ...
from power in May 1997, Musa returned and was appointed to the position of chief secretary of state of the
Kono district Kono District is a district in the Eastern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Koidu, Koidu Town. Motema is the second most populous city in the district. The other major towns in the district include Yengema, Tombodu, J ...
. There is some confusion about the exact sequence of events, and who actually initiated the coup. One of the first actions of the revolting soldiers was to seize the Parliament building and hang out placards calling for Musa to return as President. He travelled via Guinea, where he was briefly arrested, and by the time he reached Freetown, Koroma, who had been in Pademba Road Jail after a previous coup attempt, had declared himself President. Musa continued to be an important figure in the military and politics of the country, as his voice and actions were highly influential, and state politics in Kono, as elsewhere in Sierra Leone, were beset with corruption, especially relating to diamond mining. On 15 November 1998, a group of rebels led by Musa kidnapped an Italian Catholic missionary, Father Mario Guerra. Musa demanded a satellite telephone, medical supplies, and radio contact with his wife, who had been arrested in September. He wanted to surrender to either the UN or the ECOMOG force, as things were not going well for him, and he was afraid of being captured by the Kamajors. This did not happen, however, and he and his group were heavily involved in the rebel advance on Freetown at the end of 1998. (Archives of Sierra Leone Web)


Death

In late December 1999, Solomon Musa died, allegedly of wounds received from a shrapnel after an ammunition store exploded in Benguema prior to the AFRC attack on Freetown in January 1999. It now appears that he was killed, probably by his own lieutenants, on the orders of Charles Taylor, whose orders he had been refusing. This version of his death could also be traced back to rumours spread by Tejan Kabbah.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Musa, Solomon 1966 births 1999 deaths Sierra Leonean politicians People of the Sierra Leone Civil War Sierra Leonean military personnel