[1] On his release he worked as an itinerant photographer in the south and east of Sierra Leone, eventually coming in contact with young radicals.

Sankoh and confederates Rashid Mansaray and Abu Kanu solicited support for an armed uprising to oust the APC government.

On 23 March 1991, the RUF, led by Foday Sankoh and backed by Charles Taylor, launched its first attack in villages in Kailahun District in the diamond-rich Eastern Province of Sierra Leone.

Sankoh was later arrested on 17 May 2000 after his soldiers gunned down a number of protesters, killing 19 people, including journalist Saoman Conteh, outside his Freetown home on 8 May 2000.

[5] In a statement by the UN-backed war crimes court, chief prosecutor David Crane said that Sankoh's death granted him "a peaceful end that he denied to so many others".