Solomon Musa
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Solomon Anthony James Musa (1966 – January 1999) was an important military and political figure in the Sierra Leone Civil War. In late April, 1992, the Sierra Leone Army was in disarray. They had not been paid their monthly wages for three months, they were hungry, and morale was very low. Along with around 100 others, Lt. Solomon Musa and Valentine Strasser went to Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone to protest against president Joseph Momoh. The situation escalated to a coup, and in the confusion Strasser emerged as chairman of the National Provisional Ruling Council, and leader of Sierra Leone.
During the four year reign of the young Strasser, Musa played the role of advisor and henchman. In November of 1992, Musa was responsible for the execution of a group of Momoh's supporters, including Bambay Kamara, Yahya Kanu, and Colonel K. M. S. Dumbaya, who were accused of organizing a counter-coup against Strasser, although the trio had been in jail since May. During the period from November 1992 to 5 July 1993, Musa served as Chairman of the Council of State Secretaries. After Strasser was removed in a coup led by Julius Maada Bio, Musa fled the country. When Johnny Paul Koroma, of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council removed elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah from power in May, 1997, Musa returned and was appointed to the position of chief secretary of state of the Kono district. He continued to be an important figure in the military and politics of the country, as his voice and actions were highly influential, and state politics in Kono, as elsewhere in Sierra Leone, were beset with corruption, especially relating to diamond mining.
On 15 November, 1998, a group of rebels led by Musa kidnapped an Italian Catholic missionary, Father Mario Guerra. Musa demanded a satellite telephone, medical supplies, and radio contact with his wife, Tina Musa, who had been arrested in September.
In late December, 1998, Solomon Musa died of wounds received from a shrapnel after an ammunition store exploded in Benguema prior to the AFRC attack on Freetown in January 1999.
