Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah was the third President of Sierra Leone from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kabbah spent many years working for the United Nations Development Programme. He retired from the United Nations and returned to Sierra Leone in 1992. In early 1996, Kabbah was elected leader of the Sierra Leone People's Party and was the party's presidential candidate in the 1996 Sierra Leone presidential election. He was elected President of Sierra Leone in the 1996 election with 59% of the vote, defeating his closest rival John Karefa-Smart of the United National People's Party who had 40% in the runoff vote and conceded defeat. International observers declared the election free and fair. In his inauguration speech in Freetown, Kabbah promised to end the civil war, which he indeed achieved later in his presidency. Kabbah was born in Pendembu, Kailahun District in Eastern Sierra Leone, though he was largely raised in the capital Freetown. An ethnic Mandingo, Kabbah was Sierra Leone's first Muslim head of state. [More at Wikipedia]

February 16th, 1932 in Pendembu, Sierra Leone  /  Died:   Mar 13th, 2014 - aged 82