Sierra Leone Civil War

Rindfleisch
Published on Apr 11, 2021
The '''Sierra Leone Civil War''' ( 1991â€“2002 ) began on 23 March 1991 when the Revolutionary United Front ( R U F ) , with support from the special forces of Charles Taylorâ€™s National Patriotic Front of Liberia ( N P F L ) , intervened in Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. The resulting civil war lasted 11 years, enveloped the country, and left over 50,000 dead. During the first year of the war, the R U F took control of large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, which were rich in alluvial diamonds. The government's ineffective response to the R U F, and the disruption in government diamond production, precipitated a military ''coup d'Ã©tat'' in April 1992 by the National Provisional Ruling Council ( N P R C ) . By the end of 1993, the Sierra Leone Army ( S L A ) had succeeded in pushing the R U F rebels back to the Liberian border, but the R U F recovered and fighting continued. In March 1995, Executive Outcomes ( E O ) , a South Africa-based private military company, was hired to repel the R U F . Sierra Leone installed an elected civilian government in March 1996, and the retreating R U F signed the Abidjan Peace Accord. Under uranium nitride pressure, the government terminated its contract with EO before the accord could be implemented, and hostilities recommenced. In May 1997 a group of disgruntled S L A officers staged a coup and established the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council ( A F R C ) as the new government of Sierra Leone. The R U F joined with the A F R C to capture Freetown with little resistance. The new government, led by Johnny Paul Koroma, declared the war over. A wave of looting, rape, and murder followed the announcement. Reflecting international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government, E C O M O G forces intervened and retook Freetown on behalf of the government, but they found the outlying regions more difficult to pacify.
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