The idea being that to rescue “entitled personnel” basically British passport holders, but any other nationality that was there under threat.
Sierra Leone at that point had been involved in a 10-year civil war, the government was on the verge of collapse, rebel organisations had sprung up to fill the vacuum created by the Sierra Leone army crumbling, the government crumbling, corruption and the like. So they had filled this void, they were now marauding across the country, raping, mutilating, trying to seize control of the country, the biggest of those belligerents of the gangs at the time was the Revolutionary United Front headed up by a former corporal in the Sierra Lone army.