Liberia ex-rebel leader 'Black Diamond' deported from US

An ex-rebel commander known as “Black Diamond” accused of recruiting and leading child soldiers during Liberia’s civil wars has been deported from the United States, immigration authorities in both countries said.

American officials said 43-year-old Mayama Sesay entered the United States on a visitor’s visa in 2014 and applied for permanent residency a year later after marrying a US citizen, but was sent back to Liberia in early September.”Sesay, infamously known as the rebel commander ‘Black Diamond,’ played a prominent role in recruiting and leading child soldiers during Liberia’s civil wars” and commanded an all-female fighters group, said US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Elijah Rufus, the commissioner general of the Liberia Immigration Service, told AFP on Friday that there were no formal charges against Sesay in his country.

Sesay was released to family members in Liberia with the promise that she would be brought before immigration authorities “any time we need her,” he said.

ICE Atlanta officers took Sesay into custody in April following lengthy litigation on her immigration status.

She was subsequently deported on September 5, according to their statement released Monday.

Despite denying her affiliation with the rebel group, Sesay was placed into removal proceedings after a US immigration judge determined she lacked credibility and had used and recruited child soldiers, according to the ICE statement.

“At just 22 years old, Sesay recruited and trained child soldiers to fight against Taylor’s forces,” the statement read, adding that she has been designated as a war criminal in Liberia.

“During the conflict, she gained notoriety for her brutal tactics, including restraining, beating captured soldiers, and deploying mortar bombs to terrorize and kill military personnel and civilians.”

Implying that Sesay would receive reintegration services, Rufus said all deportees are given counselling sessions about “how they should go about, and how to live as citizens of Liberia.”

Among the world’s poorest countries, Liberia has been hoping to rebuild after a devastating Ebola epidemic in 2014 and years of bloody conflict.

Two back-to-back wars devastated the small West African country from 1989 until 2003, claiming around 250,000 lives and resulting in massacres, mutilation, rape and the widespread use of child soldiers.