Man strikes terror for missing diamonds
The rebel war that broke out in Sierra Leone in 1991 and left a trail of destruction in terms of human and material cost ended nearly ten years ago and peace eventually restored.
But it seems not every Sierra Leonean is enjoying the fragile peace as some individual family members continue to be haunted by the terrible past.
One such family, according to investigation, is the Conteh family, formerly residing at Peacock-Farm, Wellington, east end of the capital, Freetown.
It all started in January 1999 when rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and renegade soldiers of the armed forces of the Republic of Sierra Leone (AFRC) descended upon the capital and unleashed terror on defenseless civilians, many of who had their limbs chopped off by the marauding rebels.
One of the rebels, Brima Kamara alias Hard-To-Know used the invasion of the city of Freetown to storm the residence of the Conteh’s and with the help of some of his colleagues attacked the home of the Conteh’s.
According to our source, Brima Kamara had claimed that one of the sons, Osman Conteh had escaped with undisclosed amount of diamonds from Kono, a diamond mining district of Sierra Leone and was in Freetown hiding with the diamonds.
The ex-rebel, ‘Hard to Know’ first went to Magburaka, north of Sierra Leone where he thought Osman had gone and was staying with his step father, but upon arriving at Magburaka, Osman was nowhere to be seen. When Brima Kamara was not able to locate the man he was looking for, he and other rebel combatants brutally attacked some of the family members.
During the invasion no civilian ever dared report such attacks to the police. Rebels were left loose on innocent civilians.
When Hard-to-Know learnt that Osman had escaped to Lofa County in the Republic of Liberia where his father was residing, the former went after the young man, vowing that until he retrieved his diamonds, Osman would know no peace.
In Liberia, Hard-to-Know quickly located the father’s house, Pa Umaru Conteh but soon discovered that Osman could not be found. Frustrated, the rebel attacked the old man and a fight ensued during which his attacker poured acid on him, leaving the old man badly hurt. The father later died in a Lofa County hospital while the rebel quickly disappeared into thin air, but not until stabbing the daughter, Umu Conteh, who had gone to the rescue of her father during the fight. Umu also died of stab wounds.
The matter was reported to the Lofa County police but the whereabouts of Hard-to-Know could not be located by the police.
Meanwhile, when the war ended in Sierra Leone in 2002 after the completion of the disarmament process, ex-combatants were integrated into society; several of them sought employment in various institutions.
However, for the Conteh’s all was not over yet. Recently, the same Brima Kamara alias Hard-to-Know materialized from nowhere and has been seen around the Peacock-Farm neighbourhood, making utterances that amounted to threats, determine to strike terror again if he did not get his diamonds.
The police have been alerted, but in a post-war country like Sierra Leone anything can be possible, especially when the security outfit is not always on top of situation.Â
By Bendu Cha
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