May's Mostly Warfare Blog : RUF Rebels

If you remember from my previous post about the Kamajors, here is their enemies the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). They are most famous for being depicted in the Hollywood movie Blood Diamonds, which is a very accurate depiction of their crimes and their infamous funding by Diamonds. The signature tactic of the RUF is the amputation of its victims limbs, what ever solider or civilian (but they amputated much more civilians then soldiers). The RUF used children as young as 7 in their armies, often forcing them to kill their parents or the tribal elder. The RUF didn't even have a known ideology. They never supported any forms of religions, communism, nationalism, ethnic groups, or any other ideologies popular to rebel groups. One of the major reasons why the RUF was able to continue their insurgency was their use of the lucrative diamond trade. The Diamond Trade was so lucrative that the RUF didn't even need to win the "hearts and minds" of the people or state backing (although it did get the NPFL backing it). The RUF has gained $125 million annually from the Diamond trade. The RUF used miners enslaved at gunpoint in its mines. In 1997, as mentioned in my earlier post on the Kamajors, several rouge soldiers from the government army calling themselves the AFRC formed an alliance with the RUF and toppled the Civilian government in Freetown. The Civilian government was later put back into power by ECOMOG a year later after driving the RUF/AFRC junta out of Freetown. The RUF continued its insurgency until its defeat in 2002.

The front figure is wearing Kamajor clothing. This hints that the website ever misidentified Kamajor militiamen for the RUF or that they may be RUF fighters wearing clothing stolen from corpses of Kamajor fighters.

Military uniforms among this fighters suggest that they may be AFRC fighters, or they may be RUF fighters wearing clothing stolen or traded from government troops. However fighters in this conflict were legendary for switching sides back and forth from the RUF to the government almost daily.

This photo seems to depicted a RUF fighter standing next to a solider from ECOMOG.

The date of this photo and the presence of UN peacekeepers suggest that this photo was taken during some UN sponsored disarmament of combatants.

These RUF rebels depicted in these photos are actually mainstream government troops, however it is not an inaccuracy to label them as RUF fighters since many government troops often joined the RUF in attacks on civilians. Many deserted to the rebels presumably bringing their equipment with them. One Human Rights report mentioned it was difficult for the victims to identify their assailants because government troops were often identical to the RUF rebels.

This young fighter was identified as RUF in one website, and Kamajor on another. He could be easily part of any of those factions.

Although one website identified this fighters as RUF, the clothing suggests that this boy most likely belongs to the Kamajors.

These boys might be from the AFRC, the mainstream government army, or the RUF. One loose way to tell between the AFRC or the RUF is most AFRC fighters have military fatigues, while RUF fighters usually have civilian clothing. However, this distinction is blurred as RUF and AFRC fighters traded with each other. So it was not uncommon for rebels to wear both military and civilian clothing.

Another photo that shows how difficult the distinction of rebels and government troops was in this war. Like repeatedly mentioned above, government troops were infamous for joining the RUF in terrorizing the civilian population. That is why the government had to rely on South African Mercenaries and Tribal Militias.