In May 2000 British soldiers were deployed to Sierra Leone to help restore order following the breakdown of a United Nations-backed ceasefire that had ended the country’s civil war. They also organised the safe evacuation of British and Commonwealth citizens, helped train the Sierra Leone military and rescued a group of British soldiers who had been kidnapped by the West Side Boys. The latter were a militia group made up of former soldiers of the Sierra Leone Army, former members of the Revolutionary United Front, criminals and kidnapped civilians. They saw themselves as soldiers, but locally they were known as bandits.
