Sierra Leone Armed Forces, Sierra Leone Police, ECOMOG, British Armed Forces
This article is part of a series on the
Sierra Leone Civil War
Personalities
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Johnny Paul Koroma
Foday Sankoh
Sam Bockarie
Valentine Strasser
Julius Maada Bio
Charles Taylor
Solomon Musa
Hinga Norman
Yahya Kanu
Moinina Fofana
Allieu Kondewa
Tony Blair
David Richards
Lansana Conté
Sani Abacha
Maxwell Khobe
Vijay Jetley
Daniel Opande
Armed forces
ECOMOG
Executive Outcomes
Kamajors
RUF
Sandline International
SLA
West Side Boys
Key events
RUF insurgency
Kenema
Bo
Silver Anvil
1992 coup
1992 coup attempt
1996 coup
1996 coup attempt
1997 coup
Noble Obelisk
Siege of Freetown
Hastings Airport
Palliser
Lungi Lol
Khukri
Barras
Attempts at peace
Abidjan Peace Accord
Lomé Peace Accord
UNAMSIL
British intervention
SCSL
Political groups
AFRC
APC
NPRC
SLPP
Ethnic groups
Krio
Limba
Mende
Temne
See also
Blood diamond
Freetown
Liberian Civil War
Mano River
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The West Side Boys, also known as the West Side Niggaz or the West Side Junglers,[1] were an armed group in Sierra Leone, sometimes described as a splinter faction of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council.
They captured and held peacekeepers from the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) and, in August 2000, captured a patrol of British soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment and their Sierra Leone Army liaison officer. The group was subsequently destroyed in an operation by the Special Air Service and Parachute Regiment in September 2000 during Operation Barras.
The group was influenced to some extent by American rap and gangsta rap music, especially Tupac Shakur, and the "gangsta" culture portrayed therein.[2][3] Since the title 'West Side Niggaz' would have been an entirely unacceptable phrase to be regularly used on news programmes concerning the group, the title was amended to render it to the innocuous 'West Side Boys'. Prior to their destruction, the group's size had expanded to around 600 but later suffered about 200 defections.[1]
Many members of the group were child soldiers abducted after their parents had been killed by the "recruiters". Some of these children were forced to participate in torturing their parents to death in order to brutalise and dehumanise them. The West Side Boys were heavy users of poyo (homemade palm wine), locally grown marijuana, and heroin bought with conflict diamonds. Conflict diamonds were also used to purchase many of their weapons, which ranged from FN FAL/L1A1 rifles, AK-47/AKM rifles and RPG-7 grenade launchers to 81 mm mortars and ZPU-2 anti-aircraft guns. Most of their vehicles were hijacked from UN food convoys.
^ abSherwell, Philip (3 September 2000). "Caught with their guard down". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 September 2015.
^Reno, William (February 2003), Political Networks in a Failing State The Roots and Future of Violent Conflict in Sierra Leone, Internationale Politik und Gesellschaft, International Politics and Society, archived from the original on 23 July 2008, retrieved 21 April 2008
^Fofana, Lansana "SIERRA LEONE: Rap Star’s T-shirt A Major Factor In Conflict", Inter Press Service, October, 1998, retrieved 20 May 2018.
The WestSideBoys, also known as the WestSide Niggaz or the WestSide Junglers, were an armed group in Sierra Leone, sometimes described as a splinter...
liaison officer, who were being held by a militia group known as the "WestSideBoys". The soldiers were part of a patrol that was returning from a visit...
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east, the Hudson River on the west, West 59th Street to the south, and West 110th Street to the north. The Upper WestSide is adjacent to the neighborhoods...
Jordanian peacekeepers was taken captive by a militia group known as the WestSideBoys. Negotiations achieved the release of five of the eleven soldiers, and...
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to mock executions by the WestSideBoys to get information from them. In April 2003, U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel Allen West had Iraqi police officer...
Operation Barras, a rescue mission involving the British Army and the WestSideBoys militia group who occupied the village. Sand mining is the main industry...
smartest member of the "Fellers". He often creates the boys' plans against the WestSideBoys. Wilbur Van Snobbe – The richest and most charming boy in...
soldiers from the Royal Irish Regiment who had been captured by the WestSideBoys and would provide air support to the SAS in military operations. Ellis...
stockpiles. The RUF made extensive use of child soldiers. Thousands of abducted boys and girls were forced to serve as soldiers or as prostitutes, and those chosen...
the involvement of ex-AFRC members (from a splinter group called the WestSideBoys) in defending towns in Port Loko District against a renewed RUF offensive...
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis and...
of the genre. He was the frontman of the crunk group Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz, with whom he has released five albums. In addition, Lil Jon served...
"West End Girls" is a song by English synth-pop duo Pet Shop Boys. Written by Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe, the song was released twice as a single. The...
Beastie Boys were an American hip hop/rap rock group from New York City, formed in 1981. The group was composed of Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar)...
East Side San Jose ESSJ X4 408 SSS X4, 1738 X4, Stockton 209 Wicked West Riders X4, North Side Modesto X4 , WestSide Modesto X4 209 North Side Visa Boyz...
virtually every officially released track by the Beach Boys, including cover versions, outtakes, B-sides, and non-album singles. Singles are labelled as "non-album"...
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