naptu2: (This is straight from my memory. Forgive me for any errors [I don't think there are any).
One person that Charles Taylor will never forget is Lieutenant General Joshua Dogonyaro. Dogonyaro showed him pepper.
There was a lot of mistrust between members of Ecowas when Ecomog was created in 1990. Some Ecowas countries were clandestinely supporting Charles Taylor (eg Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso). Some other countries, especially the francophone countries, thought that Ecomog was a ploy by Nigeria to dominate West Africa.
Nigeria, which has always wanted to play the role of a nice big brother, bent over backwards in order to assure other west african countries that Ecomog was not a tool for Nigerian domination of West Africa. So they agreed that the Ecomog Force Commander should be from another country, despite the fact that Nigeria contributed the bulk of Ecomog troops. Ghanaian Lieutenant General Arnold Quainoo was thus appointed the Commander of Ecomog. Brigadier Cyril Iweze of Nigeria was made the Chief of Staff of Ecomog.
General Iweze has written about what happened (and you can find his account of what happened online), but I'm going tell the story from the point of view of an angry and frustrated nigerian soldier who told me (in the early 1990s) about what was happening.
General Quainoo was a very weak soldier. Ecomog only controlled a small part of Monrovia at this time and Charles Taylor and Prince Yormie Johnson's forces would kill Nigerian soldiers and violate agreements, yet General Quainoo would order the Nigerians not to open fire. It was a very annoying and frustrating thing for the nigerians, especially as they knew that they could very easily defeat the rebels.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when Yormie Johnson's forces invaded Ecomog headquarters and kidnapped Samuel Doe. General Quainoo was indecisive, then refused to order Nigerian troops to prevent Johnson's forces from entering the headquarters and then fled when they invaded. The only resistance was put up by Brigadier Iweze. General Quainoo fled to a ghanaian warship and refused to come back (please read General Iweze's account for more on that incident).
Then General Babangida ignored the suspicion of other west african countries and appointed a madman as Ecomog field commander. That madman was General Dogonyaro.
General Dogonyaro had previously been heavily involved in the 1983 and 1985 coups. Everybody knew that he was a madman and his soldiers were exactly like him. Soldiers in some army units did everything possible to avoid going to Liberia, but Dogonyaro's men were very eager to go to war.
(General Babangida had left Dogonyaro behind when he retired in 1993, because he wanted Dogonyaro (and General Gusau) to act as a check on General Abacha. Dogonyaro was one of the first people that Abacha retired (on the day that he became Head of State).
Dogonyaro inherited an Ecomog that was only in control of a small part of Monrovia. Within 4 months he had taken over 90% of Liberia and Charles Taylor was isolated and limited to his hometown in Gbarnga. NNS Aradu used its big guns and bombarded the rebels, the Alpha Jets bombed Gbarnga day and night and so did artillery and tank units. Yormie Johnson left the war at this time. That's when it happened.
Charles Taylor, who had been very arrogant and boastful since the beginning of the war, suddenly decided that he was interested in peace talks (Ecowas had always tried to get him to agree to peace talks, but he had always treated Ecowas with disdain). Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso put a lot of pressure on Nigeria to accept Charles Taylor's offer of peace talks. They revived the usual claims that, if Nigeria did not agree to peace talks, then it meant that Nigeria wanted to dominate Ecowas and that Ecomog was a nigerian invasion of Liberia, rather than a peace keeping/enforcement force. Nigeria, always wanting to act as the good boy and big brother, accepted Taylor's offer.
Taylor had also given some conditions that had to be met before he would agree to attend the peace talks. (1) The talks must be held in one of the countries on his list and (2) General Dogonyaro must leave Liberia. Nigeria agreed to the conditions.
So the peace talks were held in Ivory Coast. Charles Taylor arrived wearing a flak jacket and ballistic helmet and guarded by some armed women.
General Dogonyaro was recalled to Nigeria. In just 5 months he had completely changed the course of the war. Ecomog had gone from controlling 3% of Liberia to controlling 90% of Liberia.
This was one of the actions that gave Nigeria (and Ecomog) a bad name. Some Nigerians are still wondering why General Dogonyaro was recalled to Nigeria. The West felt that Ecomog could have won the war if Dogonyaro had not been replaced, so many westerners asked the question, why was Dogonyaro replaced. They believed that Dogonyaro was replaced because Nigeria did not want to win the war. The belief was that some Nigerians had gotten involved in looting and corruption in Liberia and so they did not want the war to end. It was after this that Ecomog was nicknamed Every Car Or Moving Object Gone (a means of describing the looting that some Ecomog soldiers had gotten involved in).
And then there was a stalemate and the war dragged on and on until 1997.
naptu2: NNS Ambe was going back and forth, carrying troops, tanks, Pinzgauers and other supplies to Monrovia and carrying refugees back to Lagos.
Nigerians in Liberia were kind of lucky that we had Ambe. People from other countries were stuck on civilian ships that took them out of Liberia, but had nowhere to go. The ships were being rejected from ports across the West African coast.
I remember that there was a particular ship that was rejected in Ivory Coast, Ghana and other countries. They were stuck on the Atlantic with no food. The Nigerian Government eventually accepted them, but they were scrutinised to ensure that there were no fighters among them and we reached a deal with the UN to take care of them. They were taken to the camp in Ogun.
naptu2: To those that are asking why we have a navy, I will answer by directing you to a similar question from 20 years ago.
20 years ago people were asking why we had an army. They felt it was a waste of money. The military only took over government, they did nothing for Nigeria. Today those same soldiers are battling Boko Haram.
I'm sure that the hundreds of Nigerian, Ghanaian, Sierra Leonian, Liberian and other refugees that were rescued by NNS Ambe in the 1990s are grateful that we had an LST at that time.
naptu2: This is just my opinion, but I think the events in Libya and Gambia led to the decision to commission this ship.
There was a crisis in Libya in 2009/2010 and countries were rushing to evacuate their citizens. Many countries, including the US, chartered flights to evacuate their citizens, but the US also sent an amphibious assault ship, in case it could not evacuate its citizens by regular means.
There were many Nigerians that were trapped in Libya at the time, but we no longer had any operational LSTs to send to rescue them. Luckily some of the Nigerians in Tripoli were evacuated by chartered planes, but what about the others?
There was also a crisis in the Gambia. The president refused to step down after losing an election. Ecomog was deployed to ensure that he stepped down. That operation would usually be led by Nigeria, but we had no LST to use in deploying equipment to Banjul.
NNS Ambe Hippo-class Type 502 class LST
Over 72000 refugees were sea-lifted from Liberia to Nigeria by NNS AMBE and some merchant ships. Transport ships loaded with troops and equipment of the five-nation Economic Community of West African States Military Observation Group (ECOMOG) entered the port of Monrovia. During the afternoon of 24 August 1990, Nigeria’s NNS Ambe (LST 1123) and Ghana’s MV Tano River maneuvered to the mouth of the jetty area of Freeport. They temporarily withdrew after receiving some sporadic mortar fire and reentered the port later that evening. After docking, a small mix of troops debarked.
Ecomog soldiers in Sierra Leone have all but defeated troops loyal to the ousted junta leader Lt-Colonel Johnny Paul Koroma.
With 118 dead, hundreds more wounded and parts of the capital in ruins, the price for restoring democracy the West African state however is mounting.
As fighting in the capital was quelled to all but sporadic resistance, hospital officials on Saturday began to tally the cost in human lives.
Nigerian-led troops in control of Freetown also worked to curb additional bloodshed by angry mobs bent on revenge against Sierra Leone's military junta the Nigerians fought to oust.
It's been a brief but bloody campaign for the mainly Nigerian Ecomog force, and for the war weary troops this was a moment to savour.
As they drove through the shattered streets of the capital Freetown, the people gave them an unequivocal welcome - with Ecomog in control they hope the democracy under their former President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah can be restored.
However Ecomog forces do not yet control the whole of the city.
They still have the task of combing the streets of the battered capital and seeking out remaining troops loyal to ousted junta leader Lt-Colonel Johnny Paul Koroma.
Nevertheless the relief of their commander was evident.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
Yes it was a seven day campaign and we're lucky, we made it. I think it was because of very articulate ( ie good) planning. SUPER CAPTION: Colonel Rauf Apata, Ecomog commander in charge of Freetown
Koroma was still missing on Saturday, while other junta troops continued to lay down their arms.
The crackle of gunfire also could be heard from junta soldiers holding out in the streets near the city's coastline.
At least 118 people have died during fighting between Nigerian troops and junta gunmen in recent days.
The majority of the dead and wounded were civilians.
The mainly Nigerian troops now in control of Freetown are part of a West African coalition force charged with returning ex-President Kabbah to power by toppling the military junta that has ruled since his ousting.
It may be the first time outside military might has been used by Africans to restore an elected government, rather than topple it.
Since the junta's May coup, Sierra Leone has been virtually cut off from the rest of Africa and much of the world.
Apart from humanitarian relief supplies, Freetown was shut down by a port and land blockade.
Up to 18 percent of civilians in the country's northern districts face acute malnutrition, CARE, the World Food Programme and other aid groups have warned.
Clandestine radio, meanwhile, said Kabbah was expected to return to Freetown within two weeks, although the president gave no specific date in his speech.
People who are so keen on attacking and brutalising civilians while they cower in sight once they see ISWAP? People whose rule of many years over Nigeria destroyed the country?
naptu2: Let's take a moment to remember Lieutenant Oluwafemi Odushina.
He was killed on Tuesday, the 13th of May, 2014. Boko Haram ambushed the late Oluwafemi with his troops around the Chibok area where they had gone to search for and rescue the abducted Chibok girls.
Following his death, the news got to the military camp and reportedly led to a mutiny by some soldiers of the 7th Division of the Nigerian Army against the General Officer Commanding (GOC), Major-General Abubakar Mohammed who was then redeployed.
Lt. Odushina Oluwafemi was an old student of the Air Force Secondary School, Ikeja, Lagos State. He served with the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces in Darfur and later went to Pakistan for an additional training course. In March 2014, he was deployed to Maiduguri where he was killed defending the nation’s integrity.
we used to play basketball together at the senior officers quarters. was a junior to me. i still have his picture on my phone
Back then we had real soldiers worth their salt and also worth celebrating. Right now what we have are chocolate soldiers who runaway from ragtags bandits but always very ready to deal with unarmed men and women
A representative of the widows of the fallen heroes, Dr Mrs Lemu and the Chairman of the Nigerian Legion, Major General A.M. Jubril (Rtd), lay their wreaths.
