Ahmad Tejan Kabbah

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (16 February 1932 – 13 March 2014) was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007.

An economist and attorney by profession, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme.

Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was born on February 16, 1932, in the rural town of Pendembu, Kailahun District in the Eastern Province of 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 of Guinean descent from Kambia District in northern Sierra Leone.

Kabbah's mother, Haja Adama Coomber Kabbah, was also a deeply religious Muslim and a member of the Mende ethnic group from the Coomber family, a Chieftaincy ruling house based in the rural town of Mobai, Kailahun District in eastern Sierra Leone.

A devoted Muslim himself, Kabbah's first name Ahmad means "highly praised" or "one who constantly thanks God" in Arabic language.

Kabbah was a fluent speaker of several languages including English, French, Susu, Mende, Krio and his native Mandinka language.

Though born in the Kailahun District, Kabbah grew up in the capital, Freetown.

Though a devoted Muslim, Kabbah received his secondary education at the St. Edward's Secondary School, the oldest Catholic secondary school in Freetown.

He also married a Catholic, the late Patricia Kabbah, who was an ethnic Sherbro from Bonthe District in Southern Sierra Leone.

Together the couple had five children.

Kabbah received his higher education at the Cardiff College of Food Technology and Commerce and University College Aberystwyth, Wales, in the United Kingdom, gaining a Bachelor's degree in Economics in 1959.

Kabbah's first marriage, in 1965, was to Patricia Tucker, a devout Christian from the 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.

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.

Kabbah spent nearly his entire career in the public sector.

He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992.

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 runoff vote and conceded defeat.

International observers declared the election free and fair.

Kabbah campaigned on a promise to end the civil war if elected president.

During his inauguration speech as president, Kabbah repeated the promise to end the civil war, which he indeed achieved later in his presidency.

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.

Kabbah was Sierra Leone's first and currently the only Muslim head of state of the country.

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.

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.

He signed several 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 ceasefire with the Sierra Leone government.

When the cease-fire agreement with the rebels collapsed, Kabbah campaigned for international assistance from the British, the United Nations Security Council, the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States to help defeat the rebels and restore peace and order in Sierra Leone.

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 to end the civil war.

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.

They remained married until he died in 2014.