Abubakar Hashim
Today, June 6, 2026, marks exactly 29 years since Gen. Chikadibia Isaac Obiakor, who passed away a few days ago in Abuja, saved Sierra Leone and Liberia from imminent catastrophe.
Gen. Obiakor was the Field Commander (FC) of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). As FC, UNMIL, he oversaw military operations in both Liberia and neighbouring Sierra Leone.
How Obiakor Saved Sierra Leone and Liberia on June 6
- After he successfully evacuated President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah into exile in neighbouring Guinea in May 1997, Major Johnny Paul Koroma became the military Head of State under the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC).
On June 6, 1997, a few days after Kabbah was overthrown, Gen. Obiakor, in collaboration with the United Nations, commenced a military mission to restore Kabbah to power.
The mission, code-named “Power Restoration,” was largely an aerial reconnaissance operation to assess possible air and land infiltration routes. It later snowballed into Gen. Maxwell Khobe’s liberation of Freetown and State House in late January 1999, with support from ECOMOG.
- In Liberia, Gen. Obiakor also saved the country when he championed a smooth democratic transition to civil rule, which later led to the emergence of Charles Taylor as the 22nd President of Liberia on August 2, 1997.
These two strategic interventions in both Sierra Leone and Liberia, became symbolic launch pads for the sustainable peace the two countries are enjoying today
June 6, 1997, 29 years ago, is symbolic to the ECOWAS calendar, as the starting point to usher peace and stability to the region.
*Abubakar Hashim is our West Coast Bureau Chief, based in Sierra Leone
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