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{{Short description|3rd President of Sierra Leone (1996–97, 1998–2007)}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2014}}
{{Infobox
| image = Ahmed Tejan Kabbah.jpg
| name = Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
| imagesize = 260px
| nationality = Sierra Leonean
| order = 3rd [[President of Sierra Leone]]
| vicepresident = [[Albert Joe Demby]]
| term_start =
| term_end =
| predecessor = [[Julius Maada Bio]] ([[Military Junta]])
| successor = [[Johnny Paul Koroma]] (Military Junta)
| vicepresident2 = [[Albert Joe Demby]]<br/>[[Solomon Berewa]]
| term_start2 =
| term_end2 =
| primeminister2 =
| predecessor2 = [[Johnny Paul Koroma]] (Military Junta)
| successor2 = [[Ernest Bai Koroma]]
| office3 = Leader of the [[Sierra Leone People's Party]] (SLPP)
| term_start3 = 4 March 1996
| term_end3 = 1 February 2005
| primeminister3 =
| predecessor3 =[[Salia Jusu-Sheriff]]
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| successor5 =
| birth_name=
| birth_date = {{birth date|1932|02|16|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Pendembu]], [[Kailahun District]], [[Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate|British Sierra Leone]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2014|03|13|1932|2|16|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Freetown, Sierra Leone]]
| party = [[Sierra Leone People's Party]] (SLPP)
| spouse = [[Patricia Kabbah]] (1965 until her death in 1998) <br /> [[Isata Jabbie Kabbah]] (2008–2014)
| children = 5 children (all with Patricia Kabbah):
*Mariama Kabbah
*Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Jr (deceased)
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{{Politics of Sierra Leone}}
'''Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah''' (16 February
In early 1996, Kabbah was elected leader of the [[Sierra Leone People's Party]] (SLPP) and was the party's presidential candidate in the country's first free presidential election later that year. He was elected with 59% of the vote, defeating his closest rival, [[John Karefa-Smart]] of the [[United National People's Party]] (UNPP), who had 40% in the [[Two-round system|runoff]] vote and conceded defeat. International observers declared the election free and fair. Kabbah campaigned on a promise to end the civil war
A deeply devoted [[Muslim]], Kabbah was born in [[Pendembu]], [[Kailahun District]] in Eastern Sierra Leone, though he was raised in the capital [[Freetown]]. Kabbah was an [[ethnic]] [[Mandingo people of Sierra Leone|Mandingo]]. Kabbah was Sierra Leone's first and currently the only [[Muslim]] head of state of the country.<ref name="
Kabbah's first marriage, in 1965, was to [[Patricia Kabbah|Patricia Tucker]], a devout [[Christians|Christian]] from the [[Sherbro people|Sherbro]] ethnic group and a native of [[Bonthe District]] in Southern Sierra Leone. He and Patricia Kabbah had five children. The two were often seen together in public before his presidency. She was very influential during his presidency, focusing mainly on [[humanitarian]] issues, and was outspoken on the need to end the civil war. She died from an illness in 1998 and thus did not live to see the war's end in 2002.
A year after he left office as president, and ten years after the death of his wife Patricia, Kabbah married Isata Jabbie Kabbah, an ethnic Mandingo and a Muslim in an Islamic wedding ceremony in Freetown.<ref name="
Most of Kabbah's time in office was influenced by the civil war with the [[Revolutionary United Front]], led by [[Foday Sankoh]], which led to him being temporarily ousted by the military [[Armed Forces Revolutionary Council]] from May 1997 to March 1998. He was soon returned to power after military intervention by the [[Economic Community of West African States]] (ECOWAS), led by [[Nigeria]]. Another phase of the civil war led to the [[United Nations]] and British involvement in the country in 2000.
As President, Kabbah opened direct [[negotiations]] with the RUF rebels
Kabbah declared the civil war officially over in early 2002. Tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans across the country took to the streets to celebrate the end of the war. Kabbah went on to easily win his final five-year term in office in the presidential election later that year, defeating his main opponent [[Ernest Bai Koroma]] of the main opposition [[All People's Congress]] (APC) with 70.1% of the vote–the largest margin of victory for a free election in the country's history. International observers declared the election free and fair.
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===Youth and education===
Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16, 1932, in the [[rural]] town of [[Pendembu]], [[Kailahun District]] in the [[Eastern Province, Sierra Leone|Eastern Province]] of [[Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate|British Sierra Leone]]. Kabbah's father, Abu Bakr Sidique Kabbah, who worked as a businessman and a deeply religious Muslim man, was an ethnic [[Mandingo people of Sierra Leone|Mandingo]] of [[Guinean]] [[Kinship and descent|descent]] from [[Kambia District]] in northern Sierra Leone.<ref>{{cite book|title=Dictionary of African Biography|date=2 February 2012|publisher=OUP USA|isbn=978-0-195-38207-5|page=244|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=39JMAgAAQBAJ&
Though a devoted Muslim, Kabbah received his secondary education at the St. Edward's Secondary School, the oldest [[
Kabbah received his higher education at the [[Cardiff Metropolitan University|Cardiff College of Food Technology and Commerce]] and [[University of Wales, Aberystwyth|University College Aberystwyth]], [[Wales]], in the United Kingdom, gaining a [[Bachelor's degree]] in Economics in 1959. He later studied law, and in 1969 he became a practicing Barrister-at-Law and a member of the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, London.
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After a successful tour of duty in Eastern and Southern Africa, Kabbah returned to New York to head UNDP's Eastern and Southern Africa Division. Among other things, he was directly responsible for coordinating UN system assistance to liberation movements recognized by the [[Organization of African Unity]] (OAU), such as the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, and the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) of [[Namibia]].
Before his retirement in 1992, Kabbah held a number of senior administrative positions at UNDP Headquarters in New York, including those of
==Political career in Sierra Leone==
After the military coup in 1992, he was asked to chair the National Advisory Council, one of the mechanisms set up by the military to facilitate the restoration of constitutional rule, including the drafting of a new constitution for Sierra Leone. He reputedly intended his return to Sierra Leone to be a retirement, but was encouraged by those around him and the political situation that arose to become more actively involved in the politics of Sierra Leone.
===First term as
{{Sierra Leone Civil War}}
Kabbah was seen as a [[compromise]] candidate when he was put forward by the [[Mende people|Mende]]-dominated [[Sierra Leone People's Party]] (SLPP) as their presidential hopeful in the 1996 Presidential and Parliamentary elections, the first multi-party elections in twenty-three years. The SLPP won the legislative vote overwhelmingly in the [[Southern Province, Sierra Leone|South]] and [[Eastern Province, Sierra Leone|Eastern Province]] of the country, they split the vote with the UNPP in the [[Western Area]] and they lost in the [[Northern Province, Sierra Leone|Northern Province]].
On March 29, 1996, Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was sworn in as Sierra Leone's first freely elected president. Guided by his philosophy of "political inclusion", he appointed the most broad-based government in the nation's history, drawing from all political parties represented in Parliament, and ‘technocrats’ in civil society. One minority party did not accept his offer of a cabinet post.
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The rebels reneged on the Agreement, resumed hostilities, and later perpetrated on the people of Sierra Leone what has been described as one of the most brutal internal conflicts in the world.
===Coup and exile===
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===Return to Sierra Leone===
Once again, in pursuit of peace, President Kabbah signed the [[Lomé Peace Accord]] with the RUF rebel leader [[Foday Sankoh]] on 7 July 1999. Notwithstanding repeated violations by the RUF, the document, known as the Lomé Peace Agreement, remained the cornerstone of sustainable peace, security, justice and national reconciliation in Sierra Leone. On 18 January 2002, at a ceremony marking the conclusion of the disarmament and demobilization of ex-combatants under the auspices of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ([[UNAMSIL]]), he declared that the rebel war was over.
==Saved by Nigeria and Britain==
Although elected as president, he faced the task of fighting a brutal enemy. His most crucial military support was however from outside; [[Nigeria]] was the foremost participant as they crucially intervened under the leadership of General [[Sani Abacha]], who was then the military head of his country.
==Ending of the Civil War==
[[File:Mohammad Mosaddak Ali met with President of Sierra Leone Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah at Prime Minister's Office in Dhaka.jpg|thumb|President Kabbah meeting with Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddak Ali at his Office in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2004]]
As president, Kabbah opened direct [[negotiations]] with the RUF rebels in order to end the civil war. He signed several [[Peace treaty|peace accords]] with the rebel leader [[Foday Sankoh]], including the 1999 [[Lomé Peace Accord]], in which the rebels, for the first time agreed to a temporary [[cease fire]] with the Sierra Leone government. When the cease fire agreement with the rebels collapsed, Kabbah campaigned for international
In October 1999, the United Nations agreed to send [[peacekeeping|peacekeepers]] to help restore order and disarm the rebels. The first of the 6,000-member force began arriving in December, and the [[UN Security Council]] voted in February 2000 to increase the force to 11,000, and later to 13,000. The UN peacekeeping forces were made up mainly of [[soldiers]] from the [[British special forces]], [[India]], [[Bangladesh]] and [[Pakistan]]. The African Union special forces sent to Sierra Leone to assist the government in fighting the rebels were made up mainly of soldiers from [[Nigeria]], [[Guinea]], [[Ghana]], [[Kenya]], [[Mali]], [[Zambia]] and [[The Gambia]]. The international forces, led by the British troops, launched a number of successful military operations to repel the RUF rebels and retake many of the areas of the country that were under the rebel control. The rebel lines of communication were severely disrupted and many senior rebel leaders were captured or fled the country, including the RUF leader [[Foday Sankoh]], who was captured.
The rebels finally agreed to be disarmed; in return the Sierra Leone government, led by Kabbah, offered
The civil war was officially declared over in early 2002 by Kabbah. Tens of thousands of Sierra Leoneans across the country took to the streets to celebrate the end of the war. Kabbah went on to easily win his final five years term in office in the presidential election later that year with 70.1% of the vote, defeating his main opponent [[Ernest Bai Koroma]] of the main opposition [[All People's Congress]] (APC). International observers declared the election free and fair. After the contribution made by the [[Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force]] in the war, Kabbah declared [[Bengali language|Bengali]] an honorary official language in December 2002.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://indianexpress.com/article/research/how-bengali-became-an-official-language-in-sierra-leone-in-west-africa-international-mother-language-day-2017-4536551/|title=How Bengali became an official language in Sierra Leone|date=2017-02-21|work=The Indian Express|access-date=2017-03-22|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/foreign-affairs/2017/02/23/bangla-language-sierra-leone|work=[[Dhaka Tribune]]|title=Why Bangla is an official language in Sierra Leone|date=23 Feb 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Recounting the sacrifices that made Bangla the State Language|url=http://thedailynewnation.com/news/125160/recounting-the-sacrifices-that-made-bangla-the-state-language|last=Ahmed|first=Nazir|date=21 Feb 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927121835/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-12-2002_pg9_6|url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_29-12-2002_pg9_6|date=29 Dec 2002|archive-date=27 September 2013|title=Sierra Leone makes Bengali official language|location=[[Pakistan]]}}</ref>
==End of term and post-presidency==
Kabbah left office in September 2007 at the end of his second 5-year term. Constitutionally, he was ineligible to seek re-election. His Vice-
Kabbah was the head of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]]'s observer mission for the [[2007 Kenyan general election|December 2007 Kenyan election]],<ref>[http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/daily-news/kenya:-eu-observers-doubt-%22exaggerated%22-voter-turnout-in-kenyan-polls-2007123014172/ "Kenya: EU observers doubt "exaggerated" voter turnout in Kenyan polls"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102072541/http://www.afriquenligne.fr/news/daily-news/kenya:-eu-observers-doubt-%22exaggerated%22-voter-turnout-in-kenyan-polls-2007123014172/ |date=2008-01-02 }}, Panapress (afriquenligne.fr), December 30, 2007.</ref> as well as the head of the [[African Union]]'s observer mission for the [[2008 Zimbabwean presidential election|March 2008 Zimbabwean election]] which he condemned as being "rife with fraud and abuse" and "plagued by outrageous violence."<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2008/06/09/bullets-each-you/state-sponsored-violence-zimbabwes-march-29-elections|title="Bullets for Each of You": State-Sponsored Violence since Zimbabwe's March 29 Elections|journal=Human Rights Watch |date=9 June 2008|last1=Kasambala |first1=Tiseke }}</ref><ref>Cris Chinaka, [http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3045&art_id=nw20080403155633340C523810 "Mugabe to chair meeting"], Reuters (''IOL''), April 3, 2008.</ref>
==Death==
Kabbah died at his home in [[Juba Hill]], a [[middle class]] [[neighborhood]] in the west end of [[Freetown]] at the age of 82 on March 13, 2014, after a short illness.<ref name="nyt">{{cite web|title=Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, Who Guided Sierra Leone to Peace, Dies at 82|work
A [[state funeral]] was held for Kabbah. The funeral service was attended by several former heads of state, international delegations, former and current government officials, regardless of their political parties, and members of the [[civil services]].
On March 21, 2014, Kabbah's coffin was carried by soldiers of the [[Sierra Leone Armed Forces]] into the [[Sierra Leone House of Parliament]] where members of parliament paid their last respects to the former head of state. On March 23, 2014, Kabbah's coffin was brought to the [[National Stadium (Sierra Leone)|National Stadium]], as thousands of Sierra Leoneans lined the streets of Freetown to say goodbye to their former leader. Kabbah's body was then carried by soldiers to the [[Mandingo Central Mosque]] in Freetown where an [[Salah|Islamic prayer]] service was held before he was laid to rest at the Kissi Road Cemetery, next to his mother Hajah Adama Kabbah's grave.<ref>{{cite web |title=State funeral for president Kabba on Sunday 23 March |work=Sierra Leone Telegraph |publisher=Sierra Leone Telegraph |url=http://www.thesierraleonetelegraph.com/?p=5694 |
==Personal life==
Kabbah's wife Patricia, an ethnic [[Sherbro people|Sherbro]], died in 1998. He has five children: Mariama, Abu, Michael, and Tejan Jr., and six grandchildren: Simone, Aidan, Abubakarr Sidique, Mariama, Nkoya, Tejan, and Zainab
==Honors==
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{{Reflist}}
*Aisha Labi. "Diamond In the Rough" ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine Sunday, August 18, 2002, accessed from ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20051025085734/http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020826-338590,00.html Time]'' on August 27, 2005
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* {{cite web|title=Blair legacy in Sierra Leone|url=http://kalleonegroup.com/newspaper/dev_news_files/Blair_legacy_in_Sierra_Leone.html}}{{dead link|date=April 2015}}
* {{cite web|title=Bio Data of The President of Sierra Leone|url=http://www.statehouse-sl.org/biodata.html|
{{Presidents, Sierra Leone}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kabbah, Ahmad Tejan}}
[[Category:Presidents of Sierra Leone]]
[[Category:Defence ministers of Sierra Leone]]
[[Category:Alumni of Aberystwyth University]]
[[Category:Alumni of St. Edward's Secondary School, Freetown]]
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[[Category:Sierra Leonean Mandingo people]]
[[Category:Sierra Leonean Muslims]]
[[Category:People of the Sierra Leone Civil War]]
[[Category:Sierra Leone People's Party politicians]]
[[Category:Sierra Leonean expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
▲[[Category:Sierra Leonean politicians]]
[[Category:Sierra Leonean people of Guinean descent]]
[[Category:People from Kailahun District]]
[[Category:20th-century Sierra Leonean politicians]]
[[Category:21st-century Sierra Leonean politicians]]
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