Julius Maada Bio (12 May 1964-) was President of Sierra Leone from 16 January to 29 March 1996, succeeding Valentine Strasser and preceding Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.
Biography[]
Julius Maada Bio was born on 12 May 1964 in Tihun, Sierra Leone. Bio joined the army in 1987 and led the 1996 coup that ousted his former friend Valentine Strasser from power during the Sierra Leonean Civil War, and Bio stated that he was going to support Sierra Leone's transition to democracy from a military dictatorship. In 1996, following democratic elections, he handed power to elected president Ahmad Tejan Kabbah before retiring from the military. Bio attended the American University in Washington DC and had a master's degree in international affairs; in 2005, he entered politics with the Sierra Leone People's Party and won 37% of the vote in the 2012 presidential elections with the SLPP.