On September 1, Sierra Leone's rebel leader Foday Sankoh...

On September 1, Sierra Leone's rebel leader Foday Sankoh left Togo at the beginning of a winding journey back to his homeland, which is ravaged by a civil war he started. Togolese officials said Sankoh had flown to Burkina Faso and would later visit Liberia and Côte D'Ivoire before heading home. On July 7, Sierra Leone's Government and its rebel foes had agreed to sign an accord to end West Africa's longest running civil war. Five West African presidents meeting in Lomé on the Sierra Leone conflict, convinced the rebel Revolutionary United Front (RUF) to agree on a power-sharing plan outlined in a draft pact, Togo's Foreign Minister Joseph Kokou Koffigoh said. A death sentence for treason hanging over Sankoh in 1998 was quashed under the accord.