Former members of Sierra Leone’s military junta, the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), are said to be in hiding in the United States and Britain amid fears of arrest and deportation over human rights abuses committed during their rule in the 1990s, sources told local media and rights groups.
The anxiety follows the recent deportation of Lieutenant Colonel Bayor, who had spent more than 20 years in the US before being expelled for his role in the 1992 execution of political detainees.
His case, sources say, has left surviving NPRC officials “worried, sleepless and preparing escape plans.”
Names mentioned by diaspora activists include retired Colonel Idriss Kamara, Karefa Kargbo and other ex-NPRC members who fled abroad after the junta was ousted in 1996.
Some are reportedly considering fleeing the US and UK to third countries, leaving their families behind, while others have gone underground to avoid detection.
Sierra Leonean communities in the US and Europe have filed fresh petitions to American authorities, urging investigations into the NPRC’s record of killings, torture and sexual violence.
Rights campaigners say the deportations should open the way for long-awaited prosecutions.
“These men thought they could outrun justice by hiding abroad,” said one activist in Washington, who requested anonymity. “Bayor’s deportation proves their past is not forgotten. More will follow.”
The NPRC seized power in a 1992 coup led by young officers, citing corruption and mismanagement under President Joseph Momoh. Within months, the junta carried out the extrajudicial execution of 26 alleged coup plotters, sparking outrage at home and abroad.
International rights groups documented widespread abuses during its four-year rule, including rape, forced conscription of child soldiers, and the killing of civilians.
While some NPRC figures, including current President Julius Maada Bio, returned to public life after handing power to civilians in 1996, others resettled in the US and UK. A handful were deported years later on unrelated grounds, but Bayor’s case marks the first known removal explicitly tied to the junta’s 1992 killings.
Rights groups in Sierra Leone say deportations should be followed by formal prosecutions. “The families of those murdered in 1992 deserve truth and justice,” said a representative of a Freetown-based civil society coalition. “Impunity cannot be allowed to continue.”
Washington has not confirmed further deportations, but diaspora activists say evidence is being compiled.
For many former NPRC members, the fear is immediate. “They are looking over their shoulders,” said one source. “It is no longer a question of if, but when.”
By Joe Turay
