Operation SCULPTURE

Operation SCULPTURE is Canada’s participation in the International Military Advisory Training Team (IMATT), a multi-national effort led by Britain to help the Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone build effective and democratically accountable armed forces in compliance with the Lomé Peace Agreement.

Task Force Freetown

Canadian Forces members began serving six-month tours with IMATT in November 2000. The nine members of Task Force Freetown are responsible for:

• Providing military advisory and training support to the Sierra Leone Ministry of Defence, Joint Force Command, and various formations and units of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF);
• Supporting the Core Review of the RSLAF by developing and recommending to the Government of Sierra Leone an affordable, self-sustaining establishment capable of meeting the nation’s defence needs;
• Providing technical infantry expertise, training and education advice, strategic development and leadership;
• Developing and operating a maritime surveillance and enforcement capability;
• Developing a Sierra Leone field force to serve in peace-support operations led by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS);
• Sponsoring literacy and numeracy training for members of the Sierra Leone armed forces; and
• Providing support and funding to Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) projects.

Mission context

The civil war in Sierra Leone

In 1991, fighters of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) launched a war to overthrow the government of Sierra Leone. Notable for horrific violence against civilians, the insurgency also gave rise to a series of coups, counter-coups, and periods of military rule. The U.N. began working to return Sierra Leone to orderly rule by a civilian government in 1994. At that time, some 10 percent of the population was in refugee camps in neighbouring countries and at least 30 percent was internally displaced, and 75 percent of the national budget was spent on defence.

In 1997, the insurgency expanded with the formation of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), a splinter group of the Sierra Leone Army that allied itself with the RUF.

To read a full outline of the conflict, visit the Background pages of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) site.

The Lomé Peace Agreement

In the Lomé Peace Agreement, signed on 7 July 1999 in the capital of neighbouring Togo, representatives of the RUF, the AFRC and the Government of Sierra Leone agreed to several ambitious peace initiatives, including the following:

• a collaboratively monitored cease-fire supervised by the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL),
• the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for both victims and perpetrators of crimes and human rights abuses committed during the civil war, and
• a program of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of all combatants, with a deadline of 15 December 1999.

The unarmed observer mission UNOMSIL was terminated in October 1999. In its place, the UNAMSIL was deployed with 6,000 combat troops to work with the Military Observer Group of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to suppress the insurgency and thus allow President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and the democratically elected Government of Sierra Leone to take power

Despite these efforts, the RUF and the AFRC continued fighting.

The International Military Advisory Training Team

The roots of IMATT

Britain began deploying a joint task force to west Africa under Operation PALLISER on 7 May 2000, and received a formal request for military intervention from the Government of Sierra Leone on 10 May 2000.

The first objective of Operation PALLISER was the evacuation of European Union and Commonwealth non-combatants. After the evacuation, the main aims of the joint task force were to maintain control of the airport at Lungi, patrol Freetown (the capital of Sierra Leone), and ensure the flow of supplies to UNAMSIL forces. The RUF leader was captured on 17 May 2000, and Operation PALLISER was terminated on 15 June 2000.

Britain continued its support to Sierra Leone with a long-term commitment to professionalism in the Sierra Leone armed forces. The IMATT, fielded in November 2000, was designed to exploit traditional friendly ties maintained through the Commonwealth. Its mission is to help the Government of Sierra Leone build democratically accountable, effective, sustainable armed forces capable of performing any security task assigned by the government.

The IMATT was initially led by a British brigadier-general serving as Military Advisor to the Government of Sierra Leone, and originally comprised a team of advisors and trainers and a battalion of infantry with a mandate to restructure the army of Sierra Leone from top to bottom.

IMATT today

Today, the IMATT is a training and advisory group designed to decrease in size and influence as the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) increase in professionalism and skill.

The RSLAF reform program is now sufficiently advanced that the Government of Sierra Leone has undertaken to contribute troops to a peace-support mission. In July 2009, the RSLAF deployed a sector reconnaissance company to serve with the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). As of October 2010, the Sierra Leonean contingent is into its second rotation.

Another major recent achievement is the Core Review of the RSLAF, which reduced the military establishment to a sustainable 8,500 all ranks and produced a National Security Plan. The RSLAF Maritime Wing is poised for growth, and Canada’s Task Force Freetown recently added a Navy member to mentor seamanship and ship-handling.

Britain is the IMATT’s primary lead nation, and the mission also includes contingents from Canada and the United States. Now commanded by a British colonel, IMATT currently stands at 73 all ranks, including eight Canadians.

Related links

• International Military Advisory Training Team (IMATT)
• United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL)
• Lomé Peace Agreement
• United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL)
• United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID)