Monrovia, Liberia
Brutal Sierra Leonean rebel leader Sam Bockarie was killed this week by Liberian troops, Liberian authorities said. Bockarie, 40, was a professional disco dancer before he became the No. 2 commander in the Revolutionary United Front. Under his stewardship, the Sierra Leonean rebel group grew infamous for hacking off the hands of thousands of civilians, even children, during a 10-year civil war. Bockarie fled to Liberia when the war ended last year, and the U.N. had been strongly pressing that country to hand him over to a war crimes tribunal in Freetown.
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