Sandline International was a
private military company (PMC) based in London, established in the early 1990s. It was involved in conflicts in
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
in 1997 and had a contract with the government under then-Prime Minister
Julius Chan, causing the
Sandline affair. In 1998 in
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
Sandline had a contract with ousted the President,
Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and in
Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
in 2003 was involved in a rebel attempt to evict the then-president
Charles Taylor near the end of the civil war. Sandline ceased all operations on 16 April 2004.
On the company's website, a reason for closure is given:
Sandline was founded and managed by retired
British Army
The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...
Lieutenant Colonel
Tim Spicer. Sandline billed itself as a PMC and offered military training, "operational support" such as equipment and arms procurement and limited direct military activity, intelligence gathering, and public relations services to governments and corporations. While the mass media often referred to Sandline as a
mercenary
A mercenary is a private individual who joins an armed conflict for personal profit, is otherwise an outsider to the conflict, and is not a member of any other official military. Mercenaries fight for money or other forms of payment rather t ...
company, the company's founders disputed that characterisation. A commercial adviser for Sandline once told the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
that the firm saw themselves differently from mercenaries, stating that they were an established entity with “established sets of principles” and that they employed professional people.
[
] He reiterated that the firm would not accept contracts from groups or governments that would jeopardise its reputation.
Spicer recounted his experiences with Sandline in the book ''An Unorthodox Soldier''.
See also
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Aegis Defence Services
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Executive Outcomes
Executive Outcomes is a private military company (PMC) founded in South Africa in 1989 by Eeben Barlow, a former lieutenant-colonel of the South African Defence Force. It later became part of the South African-based holding company Strategic ...
*
Simon Mann
Simon Francis Mann (26 June 1952 – 8 May 2025) was a British officer in the Special Air Service (SAS), and later a mercenary. He trained to be an officer at Sandhurst and was commissioned into the Scots Guards. He later became a member of t ...
Bibliography
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References
External links
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Private military contractors
Mercenary units and formations
1997 in Papua New Guinea
Military units and factions of the Sierra Leone Civil War
2003 in Liberia
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