The term “Civil Defense Forces” was first coined in between 1997 and 1998 by expatriate Sierra Leoneans in Monrovia. The title encompassed “disparate militias previously referred to by ethnically coded titles”.[1] The CDF included soldiers from the militia groups the Kuranko tamaboro, the Mende kamajoisia, the Temne gbethis and kapras, and the Kono donsos.[2] The goal of the overarching title was to create a sense of unity and prerogative between the independent militias.