After more than two decades in the United States, Charles Emile Mbayo, a man accused of being part of Sierra Leone’s bloody past, has been deported. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that Mbayo was flown back to Freetown on August 20, 2025, ending his long stay in America.
Mbayo had first entered the US in 1998 on a student visa. Years later, when he applied for permanent residency, his request was rejected, paving the way for deportation. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested him in June, and he had remained in detention until his removal. US officials described the move as part of their effort to ensure the country never becomes a hiding place for human rights violators.
Back in the 1990s, Mbayo wasn’t just another soldier—he was a senior figure in Sierra Leone’s National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC), the military junta that toppled President Joseph Momoh in April 1992. The coup came at the height of a brutal civil war, as rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded from Liberia. Under the junta, 29 people—including ex-government officials—were accused of plotting against the regime, detained, tortured, executed, and buried in a mass grave.
At the time, the NPRC was led by Captain Valentine Strasser, with Julius Maada Bio—now Sierra Leone’s current president—serving as his number two. Bio would later oust Strasser in 1996 and briefly take power before handing over to a civilian government.
Rights groups have long tied Mbayo’s name to those dark events. Even though he left Sierra Leone in the late 1990s and started a new life in the US, his past kept catching up with him. In 2023, when his permanent residency application was denied, the path was clear for Washington to act.
Announcing the deportation, Kevin Raycraft, ICE’s Detroit Field Office Director, stressed that cases like this are about both public safety and accountability. “Removing this individual from the United States serves both those priorities,” he said. His colleague at HSI Detroit, Jared Murphey, added that America would never be a safe haven for people tied to horrific crimes.
