The
first democratically
elected president of
Sierra Leone in 1996. He was
ousted by a
military coup in 1997. Kabbah spent nearly a year in
exile before a
coalition of
West African troops called ECOMOG (
Economic Community of
West African States Monitoring Group] returned him to
power in 1998.
Kabbah's influence is pretty much confined to the borders of Freetown given that much of the country is controlled by rebels like the Revolutionary United Front since the civil war broke out in 1991.
A relative peace was established in Sierra Leone in 1999 but was pretty shortlived given that something like 500 United Nations peacekeepers were taken hostage shortly after.
Ahmed Kabbah has also worked as an official with the United Nations Development Project and as a lawyer with his own practice.