The
FIOH Education and Development Fund
48 Churchward Avenue
Swindon
Wiltshire
SN2 1NH
UK
Tel/Fax 01793 532353
Registered
Charity Number 1047953
POST
WAR RURAL DEVELOPMENT AT YONIBANA
BACKGROUND
In
1988 FIOH UK co-ordinator, Mike Thomas
and his daughter Clare (then aged 15) visited the FIOH Group in Freetown, led
by Olatunde Johnson, and gave a small grant for a bakery and pineapple plantation.
They stayed with Olatunde's sister in a poor home in the main street.
During
this visit they accidentally encountered a bad slum area named Kroobay housing
5,000 people. The area was adjacent to the south western coast and the main sewage
outfalls from Freetown City (the capital) ran through the settlement to the sea.
Most people lived in poorly constructed shacks made from corrugated iron. The
main problem the people faced was that they had no immediate access to clean water
and needed a clean water supply to be piped down from the City centre. Mike undertook
to raise £700 for a water supply on condition that a co-operative organisation
would be formed to receive the money. Over the next 18 months the Freetown Kroobay
Development Association (FKDA) was formed and three pipelines were installed.
A BBC television programme 'Trade Slaves' later revealed that the three pipelines
were the only development help the community had received.
In 1990 Charles Taylor established the National Patriotic Front of Liberia
(NPLF) and launched a rebellion. In March 1991 NPLF soldiers crossed the border
into Sierra Leone and gradually gathered support from Sierra Leoneans in the east
disaffected with the government. Within six weeks they took over much of the south
and east, the country's most important areas in terms of cash crop production
and valuable diamond reserves. This is not the only time disturbances had taken
place in this area. In 1982 the army had to put down disturbances among the Mende
tribe who had become dissatisfied with their representation in the All Peoples
Congress (APC) government, in power since 1967. In 1991 a new Sierra Leone rebel
force, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was formed under the leadership of
Foday Sankoh and joined NPLF infiltrators. In May 1991 a new government army is
formed and bolstered by troops drawn from Liberian refugees (the United Liberation
Movement (ULIMO).
During the next 11 months fighting continued spasmodically
and was generally confined to the north and east of the country. In April
1992 opportunist young officers, complaining about lack of pay for their soldiers,
took over the country during the absence of APC President Momoh. The National
Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC) was formed under the leadership of the youthful
Valentine Strasser (Strasser was later to become involved in atrocities and corrupt
dealings).
The
FKDA then established that the community needed a community centre and in 1993
Mike returned with a sum of £10,000 donated by friends to help build this.
There was an infectious air of optimism in the capital and young people were cleaning
out the city's sewers, installing waste baskets and painting fine pictures on
walls and public buildings.
A young local architect drew up the plans and
the building was eventually completed, after much disruption by civil war, in
2000.
During this visit he met Edward
Kargbo, a farmer from Yonibana (90 miles north east of the capital) who attended
a locally organised FIOH seminar in the Bai Bureh Hall at Port Loko (which used
to be a reception centre for slaves).
Edward formed an association of farmers
groups which they named the FIOH Farmers Union. This was later named FIOH Sierra
Leone.
With a small grant from FIOH UK they established a primary health training
programme in 13 villages in the Yoni Chiefdom. Government lecturers gave lectures
without charge and the community built a training centre using their own resources.
In 1994
the programme was about to be launched in the field, when rebels attacked the
area. The attack took place on 25th December and two villages and all the public
buildings, including the FIOH training centre, were destroyed.
Many people
fled over the next 18 months and 5 local FIOH helpers were killed doing humanitarian
work providing food and shelter for people living in the bush.
Five more FIOH helpers died in subsequent attacks.
In
February 1995 Edward Kargbo moved to Freetown with his family and set up an office
after rebels attacked Yonibana for a second time. Initially he is helped by the
FKDA under the leadership of Momodu Bangura. Edward and Momodu started working
together on joint programmes. On the 12th Feb 95 the FKDA used some of the money
for the Community Centre to mount an emergency food relief for the people at Yonibana.
A small office (lock-up garage) was established in Freetown and a variety of income
generating activities set up to help people displaced by the conflicts in the
rural areas.
In March 1995 both Edward and Momodu accompanied a relief convoy
to Yonibana during a period when government soldiers had secured the Yonibana
area and the road leading to it from Freetown.
Edward received letters of
solidarity from FIOH groups around the world.
Erik
Dammann (FIOH founder) wrote on the 3rd May.
On the 5th May 95 Edward
joined a convoy to Yonibana. This was ambushed by rebels 65 miles from Freetown.
He sustained wounds all over his body but was able to escape into the bush where
he spent three days before he is able to make his way to Yonibana. His wounds
took 3 months to heal.
On the 11th Jul 95 Yonibana is attacked for a third
time and again on 28th Dec 1995 and the 1st Jan 1996. All the roads to Freetown
were blocked by rebels. During 1996 children from 10 schools in Swindon filled
shoe boxes with dried milk, food and medical supplies for people living in a displaced
camp in Freetown and for people at Yonibana. This was part of the Swindon Agenda
21 programme for schools.
In
Mar 1996 Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP) was elected
president but this was not accepted by the rebels.
In Nov 1996 a peace accord
is signed between the warring factions at Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire.
The peace
was to be short-lived.
INTRODUCTION
On 10th Jan 1997 the FIOH Education and Development Fund made a project application
(£43,600) to the National Lottery Charities Board ( now called the Community
Fund) to help people recommence agricultural work at Yonibana and for the construction
of wells, toilets and agricultural work at Robaka. Ibrahim Sesay of the Robaka
Farmers co-operative Association and Edward Kargbo of FIOH had submitted projects
to the Fund (based in Swindon).
On
25th May 97 the military under the leadership of Johnny Paul Koroma overthrew
the new government and released 650 prisoners. They then invited the RUF rebels
to help form a new junta. This was named the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council
(AFRC). This was not recognised by the international community, including the
United Nations, and sanctions were imposed. This caused even greater hardship
for poor people in the city and the rural areas.
It was reported that 20,000
people had been killed since 1990 (nearly all civilians) and one third of the
4.5 million population were in internal displaced camps or refugee camps in neighbouring
countries.
Boy soldiers, often injected with marijuana, had been used by both
sides to carry out atrocities. Adult soldiers, afraid of revenge by the family
or the spirit of the executed person, encouraged children to carry out the killing
for them. Child soldiers have cut off the hands, legs and heads of men, women
and children.
