Alhaji Shekuba Saccoh (born in

Kalangba Kalangba (; ) is a rural village in Bombali District, Northern Province, Sierra Leone."Kalangba, now a small village in central Sierra Leone of approximately 3,000 inhabitants." It is the headquarters for Ngowahun Chiefdom. It is situated about ...

Bombali District Bombali is a district in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. Its capital and largest city is Makeni, which is also the largest city in the north. The Bombali district is one of the sixteen districts of Sierra Leone. Bombali is one of the lar ...

) is a

Sierra Leonean The demographics of Sierra Leone are made up of an indigenous population from 18 ethnic groups. The Temne in the north and the Mende in the south are the largest. About 60,000 are Krio, the descendants of freed slaves who returned to Sierra L ...

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

and the current

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 ...

ambassador An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or so ...

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

. He was appointed to the position by president

Ahmad Tejan Kabbah Alhaji Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (16 February 1932 – 13 March 2014) was a Sierra Leonean politician who served twice as the 3rd President of Sierra Leone, from 1996 to 1997 and again from 1998 to 2007. An economist and attorney by profession, Kab ...

. He is a member of the Mandingo. He was the favoured choice by many prominent SLPP members in the Northern Province to be chosen as

Solomon Berewa Solomon Ekuma Dominic Berewa (6 August 1938 – 5 March 2020) was Vice-president of Sierra Leone from May 2002 to September 2007. Standing as the candidate of the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), he was defeated in the second round of the 20 ...

's running mate for the 2007 Presidential and Parliamentary elections. The position, however, went to foreign minister

Momodu Koroma Momodu Koroma (born 1956 in Yonibana, Tonkolili District, British Sierra Leone) is a Sierra Leonean politician. He is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs and a member of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). He became foreign minister in May 20 ...

. He ran again for the SLPP leadership at the party convention held in on April 12, 2009, in the south-eastern city of

Kenema Based on the 2021 national mid-term census, Kenema has a population of 255,110. making it the second most populous city in Sierra Leone after Freetown, and the largest city in the country's Eastern Province, Sierra Leone, Eastern Province. Kenema ...

but he came in third place behind

John Oponjo Benjamin John Oponjo Benjamin (born 29 November 1952) is a Sierra Leonean economist and politician of Mende descent. He was the leader of the main opposition Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) to 2013. He served as Minister of Finance of Sierra Leone ...

and J.B Dauda. After losing at the convention, Saccoh accused the SLPP of being a Mende party. He claimed the only reason he lost the leadership is because he is not from the Mende ethnic group. Saccoh said he was unfairly treated because he is from the minority Mandingo ethnic group, the same ethnic group former Sierra Leone's president

belongs to.

External links

*http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20052053.shtml Sierra Leonean diplomats Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Sierra Leone People's Party politicians Ambassadors of Sierra Leone to Guinea Sierra Leonean Mandingo people People from Kalangba {{Africa-diplomat-stub