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Sierra Leone Civil War

Sierra Leone Civil War
Map of Sierra Leone
Military Conflict
ConflictSierra Leone Civil War
Date23 March 1991 � 18 January 2002
LocationSierra Leone
ResultGovernment victory
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone Kamajors
Executive Outcomes (South Africa-based mercenary group)
Nigerian-led ECOMOG forces
United Nations United Nations Mission to Sierra Leone
United Kingdom
RUF
Liberia NPFL
AFRC
West Side Boys
Sierra Leone Ahmad Tejan Kabbah
Sierra Leone Samuel Hinga Norman
Sierra Leone Valentine Strasser
Sierra Leone Solomon Musa
United Kingdom David J. Richards
United Kingdom Tony Blair
Sierra Leone Foday Sankoh
Sierra Leone Johnny Paul Koroma
Sierra Leone Sam Bockarie
Sierra Leone Foday Kallay
Liberia Charles Taylor
Upwards of 50,000 Sierra Leoneans
2.5 million displaced internally and externally

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The Sierra Leone Civil War began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Momoh government, sparking a gruesome 11-year civil war that enveloped the country and left over 50,000 dead.

During the first year of the war, the RUF took control of large swathes of territory in Eastern and Southern Sierra Leone rich in alluvial diamonds. The government's ineffective response to the RUF and the disruption in government diamond production precipitated a military coup-d'etat in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council (NPRC). By the end of 1993 the Sierra Leone Army (SLA) had succeeded in pushing the RUF rebels back to the Liberian border, but the RUF recovered and fighting continued. In March 1995, Executive Outcomes (EO), a South Africa-based private military company, was hired to repel the RUF. An elected civilian government was installed in March 1996 and the retreating RUF signed the Abidjan Peace Accord. However, the government terminated its contract with EO before the accord could be implemented and hostilities recommenced.

In May 1997 a group of disgruntled SLA officers staged a coup and established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) as the new government of Sierra Leone. The RUF joined with the AFRC to capture Freetown with little resistance. The new government, led by Johnny Paul Koroma, declared the war officially over, and a wave of looting, rape, and murder followed the announcement. Reflecting international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government, ECOMOG forces intervened and retook Freetown on behalf of the government, but they found the outlying regions more difficult to pacify.

In January 1999 the international community intervened diplomatically to promote negotiations between the RUF and the government. The Lome Peace Accord, signed on 27 March 1999, was the result. Lome gave Foday Sankoh, the commander of the RUF, the vice presidency and control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines in return for a cessation of the fighting and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to monitor the disarmament process. However, RUF compliance with the disarmament process was inconsistent and sluggish, and by May 2000 the rebels were advancing upon Freetown once again. The British intervened to save the flailing UN mission and the weak government of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah. With help from a renewed UN mandate and Guinean air support, the British Operation Palliser finally defeated the RUF. On 18 January 2002, President Kabbah declared the Sierra Leone Civil War officially over.


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