Preview of Anarchy In Sierra Leone

When soldiers of the RSLAF (Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces) staged a coup d'etat on May 25, 1997 it was the beginning of what would be a nine-month period of unprecedented, bloodshed, rape and general chaos that enveloped the whole of Sierra Leone's capital city, Freetown, and the rest of the country
As the junta regime forced open the gates and cells of the country's main prison; the Pademba Road prison, freed an army Captain, Johnny Paul Koroma and hundreds of other prisoners the scene was set for a looting spree as the escaped prisoners teamed up with free-for-all marauders to break into private homes, shops and public buildings, seizing items ranging from vehicles to electronic goods, furniture and other household materials.

Violence
Those residents who tried to resist met with such gleeful violence from the gun toting invaders that many were quickly cowered into submission.
Within a few days, the junta leaders went on state radio to invite rebels of Foday Sankoh's RUF (Revolutionary United Front) to quit their bush hideouts, come into the city and join forces with the junta against the legitimate government of President Alhaji Dr. Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, which was already exiled in Conakry, Guinea. As thousands of rebels streamed into the city from numerous bush paths with shoulder slung AK47, Uzi or other type guns over their shoulders, mayhem reigned in Sierra Leone.

Diary
One man who witnessed it all and kept a day-to-day diary of the events as they happened was Dr. James D. Rogers who, at the time, worked for the UNDP (United Nations Development Program) in Sierra Leone. The result is the book, 'Anarchy in Sierra Leone', a down-to-earth factual presentation of the entire story. As one previewer puts it, "The episodes come to life through each page of the book and leap at you, giving you an immediacy of experience as if you were there when it all happened.
"For those who personally lived through this terrible ordeal, this book will be like an album to be kept for posterity."

Dramatic Episodes
The book 'Anarchy in Sierra Leone' comprises thirteen chapters representing the various stages of the nine-month drama as they unfolded. With each chapter under a sub-title the episodes are presented with a clinical reporting style depicting the hard facts that will appeal to historians, researchers and general-interest readers alike.
Dr. J.D Rogers nimbly takes the reader into the harrowing days after the coup, the stunned angry reaction of the public at yet another illegal forage into the nation's emergent democratic process; the painstaking, even desperate, attempts by intermediaries to find a peaceful solution; the bottle necks and blockages that stifled so many of those efforts bringing nearer and nearer what everyone dreaded armed intervention by Ecomog the military arm of the 16-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
How it all unravelled makes 'Anarchy in Sierra Leone' a breathless, compulsive read that will surely impact on literary and analytical centres in Africa and the world.

Quotes from Anarchy in Sierra Leone
"The shooting died down late in the day. Early news from the official media indicated that the AFRC had taken the airport, but this was later debunked, with other reports showing that on the contrary, the Ecomog troops had inflicted severe damage on the AFRC/RUF militia."
"Meanwhile, the great trek commenced in earnest as thousands of Sierra Leoneans came to accept the sad reality that they must walk to and from their business and other places, in the absence of transportation as a result of the fuel crisis."

Many female nurses were stripped naked and some others abducted while a male nurse, Morray Momoh, was shot dead at close range. It was a horrific day for students who were hounded all over the city with many beaten, raped and killed."

"In what has been described as the mother of all looting, since the coup d'etat, the headquarters of the female secret society (Bondo) in Kenema was broken into by soldiers who looted it clean."

'Anarchy in Sierra Leone' is being published by:Mount Everest PublishingHouse, 8 Liverpool Street, Freetown, Sierra Leone