Sobel (Sierra Leone)

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Sobel is the name given to Sierra Leone soldiers who turned into rebels. The word combines “soldier” and “rebel” and started to be used in the 1990s. By 1993 some Sierra Leonean soldiers helped rebels by supplying guns, and the term sobel began to be heard around 1994.

In 1997 a group inside the army, the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), staged a coup. The AFRC then joined with the rebels, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and attacked civilians, causing many deaths and terrible abuses.

At first the RUF claimed to be fighting a corrupt government, but it soon acted like a group of bandits. The soldiers who opposed the RUF also harmed civilians in rebel areas, which made people hate them. Some researchers say this lowered soldiers’ morale, and with government rations being low, many soldiers switched sides and became sobels—“soldiers by day, rebels by night.” The fighting also involved blood diamonds, making it profitable to pretend to serve as soldiers while taking resources.

The army’s quality declined after 1991, when it grew from about 3,000 to 16,000 troops. Many new recruits were not properly screened and lacked discipline or loyalty.

The sobel phenomenon isn’t unique to Sierra Leone. Similar patterns have appeared in other parts of Africa, such as Tuareg fighters in Mali and Niger. Sometimes peace deals bring former rebels into national armies, but they can become disenchanted and desert later.