the coup was in control of the capital, the leaders imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew and closed the country's borders. The coup also shut down the Lungi International Airport, which was under the control of troops belonging to the West African peacekeeping force ECOMOG.
             The coup began the invasion Sunday when about twenty heavily armed men stormed Freetown's maximum-security prison and freed an estimated 600 inmates. Some of the inmates included soldiers jailed for plotting against President Kabbah. The rebels took over the national assembly after fighting with Nigerian troops near the presidential office complex in Freetown. The Nigerian troops were stationed in the capital to help defend the civilian government against rebels (3, p2). Stray fire, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortar, hit the U.S. Embassy, about 200 yards from the national assembly building. The embassy suffered damage but there were no reports of injuries. Hospital officials reported that five civilians were killed elsewhere in the capital as gun battles raged most of the day (3, p.2). From reports given by the U.S. State Department, two Americans were injured when their home was looted. A coup spokesman accused the government of introducing tribalism and reportedly called for the return to Sierra Leone of Foday Sankoh, a leader of the rebel Revolutionary United Front, and Capt. Solomon Musa, a former deputy military leader linked to coup allegations in 1993. The coup spokesman then reported that the army had seized parliament and the government offices, as well as the radio and television stations. He said that a new government would be announced at the end of the day. (4, p.2)
             Mutinous soldiers who ousted Sierra Leone's civilian government scrapped the constitution and banned political parties. But the mutineers promised that the tiny West African nation would someday return to a "proper democracy" (5, p.1). After the denouncing of Sierra Leone's cons...