West Side Boys: Difference between revisions
John Cline (talk | contribs) m Reverted edits by 50.9.109.170 (talk) to last revision by 41.185.115.103 (HG) |
|||
| Line 20: | Line 20: | ||
== Who they were == |
== Who they were == |
||
{{Sierra Leone Civil War}} |
{{Sierra Leone Civil War}} |
||
At the time that the West Side |
At the time that the West Side Niggaz were active, large areas of Sierra Leone were controlled by militias. However, there existed no proveable connections to the main rebel group in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front. |
||
Frequently the subject of British media, due in part to their kidnapping of British soldiers and their flamboyant character, romanticised by the BBC's reporting language: "They were known for wearing bizarre clothing - women's wigs and flip-flops were favourites - and being almost perpetually drunk."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/901209.stm Who are the West Side Boys? ]", ''[[BBC News]]'', 31 August 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010</ref> |
Frequently the subject of British media, due in part to their kidnapping of British soldiers and their flamboyant character, romanticised by the BBC's reporting language: "They were known for wearing bizarre clothing - women's wigs and flip-flops were favourites - and being almost perpetually drunk."<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/901209.stm Who are the West Side Boys? ]", ''[[BBC News]]'', 31 August 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010</ref> |
||
Revision as of 07:48, 3 June 2011
| West Side Boys | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Foday Kallay |
| Dates of operation | 1998—2000 |
| Active regions | Occra Hills, Sierra Leone |
| Status | Defunct |
| Size | 400 |
| Allies | Armed Forces Revolutionary Council |
| Opponents | Sierra Leone Armed Forces, Sierra Leone Police, ECOMOG, British Armed Forces |
The West Side Boys aka West Side Niggaz or West Side Junglers,[1] were an armed group in Sierra Leone, sometimes described as a splinter faction of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council. It captured and held members of a mostly West African peacekeeping force (including members of the Royal Irish Rangers) in 2000, and was subsequently destroyed by units of the British Special Air Service, Special Boat Service and Parachute Regiment during September 2000 in Operation Barras, and follow-up operations by the Sierra Leone Army and Royal Irish Rangers. The group was influenced to some extent by American rap and gangsta rap music, especially Tupac Shakur, and the "gangsta" culture portrayed therein.[2][3] Since the title 'West Side Niggaz' would have been an entirely unacceptable phrase to be regularly used on news programmes concerning the group, the title was amended to render it to the innocuous 'West Side Boys'. Prior to their destruction, the group had expanded to around 400 members.
Many members of the group were children abducted after their parents had been killed by the "recruiters". Some of these children were forced to participate in torturing their parents to death in order to brutalise and dehumanise them. (See military use of children.) The West Side Boys were heavy users of homemade palm wine, locally grown marijuana, and heroin bought with conflict diamonds. Conflict diamonds were also used to purchase many of their weapons, which ranged from SLR rifles, AK-47 rifles and RPG-7 grenade launchers to 81 mm mortars and ZPU-2 anti-aircraft guns. Most of their vehicles were hijacked from UN food convoys. One of the hostages rescued during Operation Barras has also claimed that the West Side Boys were supplied with ammunition by corrupt Jordanian UN peacekeepers.
Who they were
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Sierra Leone Civil War |
|---|
| Personalities |
| Armed forces |
| Key events |
| Attempts at peace |
| Political groups |
| Ethnic groups |
| See also |
At the time that the West Side Niggaz were active, large areas of Sierra Leone were controlled by militias. However, there existed no proveable connections to the main rebel group in Sierra Leone, the Revolutionary United Front.
Frequently the subject of British media, due in part to their kidnapping of British soldiers and their flamboyant character, romanticised by the BBC's reporting language: "They were known for wearing bizarre clothing - women's wigs and flip-flops were favourites - and being almost perpetually drunk."[4]
Notes
- ^ "Caught with their guard down ", The Telegraph, 3 September 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010
- ^ Reno, William (February 2003), Political Networks in a Failing State The Roots and Future of Violent Conflict in Sierra Leone, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, International Politics and Society, retrieved 21 April 2008
- ^ The Telegraph, 19 June 2001
- ^ Who are the West Side Boys? ", BBC News, 31 August 2000. Retrieved 30 April 2010
References
- Operation Certain Death, Damien Lewis, Arrow Books, 2005.