Journal # 8 by Jordan Kightlinger

          The topic that I chose was the R.U.F, Revolutionary United Front. They were an a rebel army that fought in the Sierra Leone for ten years. Afterwards, it became a political party until the year of 2007. Financing itself through the country's diamond resources they carried out violent acts on civilians, claiming some 50,000 lives and displacing around two-million people. The leader of this organization was Foday Saybana Sankoh. In Liberia in 1991, Sankoh aligned himself with the an anti-government guerrilla unit, and with the help of it's leader, Charles Taylor, founded the R.U.F, which in March 1991, began to carry out their malicious deeds on the towns of Sierra Leone along the eastern border. Within a month they gained a sizable region of the eastern border and were on track to overtake the government.
          The R.U.F. first attacked in 1991. The Momoh regime, which is in charge of governing Sierra Leone, was in serious difficulty. With a crumbling economy, increasing agitation, and factional turmoil, Momoh announced a return for multi-party politics, and elections would be set for 1992. However, before the elections could happen the R.U.F. attacked. With the help of Charles Taylor's National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), Sankoh was able to cross into Sierra Leone's Eastern Province in March 1991, with aim to end the APC's hold of power. These raids on the towns showed the weakness of Sierra Leone's military, and most of the Kailahun District, within a month, was under R.U.F. control.
           The R.U.F. was made up of many different types of people. Disaffected young men were a significant portion, but most of them were already alienated and dangerous before the R.U.F. arose. Only very few people joined the R.U.F. of their own will. Main recruits were drawn from the same Freetown that Siake Stevens recruited his brutal ISU and where Joseph Momoh found material to double his army. And others were children who were kidnapped, drugged, and forced to do heinous acts.    

Soldiers of the Revolutionary United Front 

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/ruf.htm

I believe this source to be reliable because the website has many topics of various issues, and their information matches what I saw on other sources.