1999 — The January 6 Invasion of Freetown

On January 6, 1999, rebels of the Revolutionary United Front stormed Freetown, Sierra Leone's capital. Their three-week occupation brought the worst atrocities of the country's eight-year civil war. Thousands of civilians were killed and neighborhoods burned, in fighting fueled by the trade in blood diamonds.

Peacekeepers eventually drove the rebels out of the capital, but the scars of those weeks remained in every street they had held. The wider war did not end until 2002. January 6 remains a solemn day of remembrance in Sierra Leone, a date when the nation looks back on what was done to its capital and to the ordinary people who endured it.