Liberia In Sierra Leone
“Liberia was a major catalyst for the massacres that occurred in Sierra Leone”
To what extent do you agree with the statement and discuss their involvement in the progression of events?
The neighbouring West African states of Sierra Leone and Liberia suffered violent, protracted, and intermingled civil wars in the 1990s. These wars received worldwide attention for practices viewed as particularly brutal—the kidnapping and training of child soldiers; the use of girls and women as sexual slaves; the practicing of amputating the hands, arms, and legs of those considered enemies; and the international trade in conflict diamonds that funded and prolonged the wars. The result being 200,000 people killed, 2 million displaced, and half of Sierra …show more content…
Liberia clearly took advantage of the situation acting as ruthless opportunists, being geographically and culturally similar to Sierra Leone, being a post colonialized republic, recuperating from those effects, a country governed by corrupt officials and turbulent political dealings internally and externally, would make any country lose sight of what is wrong and right when dealing with armed civil conflict, rather than making push to solve the issues with diplomacy, the conflict was only aggravated. When there is discontent and civil war leaves a country open to being exploited to commercial …show more content…
It was essentially reacting to the corrupt one-party rule of Joseph Momoh, who ruled from 1985 to 1992, Foday Sankoh, a political outsider and former corporal in the Sierra Leone Army, formed the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and began an armed insurrection, with Taylor. On March 23, 1991, the RUF and National Patriotic Front for Liberia (NPFL) invaded the Kailahun district in Sierra Leone from neighbouring Liberia, itself in the midst of a bloody civil war. Two other attachments invaded south-eastern Sierra Leone, engaged the Sierra Leone Army, and moved inland to gain more control over the country. In its attempt to gain control over towns and villages, RUF members informed civilians that they were freedom fighters working to save Sierra Leoneans from the ruling All Peoples’ Congress. The wanton killing of civilians was common in nearly every place the RUF/NPFL arrived, as was the looting of property. The RUF took advantage of the situation using propaganda on a vulnerable population, including children, their political motives not entirely clear, but the effects of their ravaging can still be seen throughout Sierra Leone today. To say they prolonged the violence, would be an understatement, as they created generations of amputees and left their undisguisable mark on Sierra
To what extent do you agree with the statement and discuss their involvement in the progression of events?
The neighbouring West African states of Sierra Leone and Liberia suffered violent, protracted, and intermingled civil wars in the 1990s. These wars received worldwide attention for practices viewed as particularly brutal—the kidnapping and training of child soldiers; the use of girls and women as sexual slaves; the practicing of amputating the hands, arms, and legs of those considered enemies; and the international trade in conflict diamonds that funded and prolonged the wars. The result being 200,000 people killed, 2 million displaced, and half of Sierra …show more content…
Liberia clearly took advantage of the situation acting as ruthless opportunists, being geographically and culturally similar to Sierra Leone, being a post colonialized republic, recuperating from those effects, a country governed by corrupt officials and turbulent political dealings internally and externally, would make any country lose sight of what is wrong and right when dealing with armed civil conflict, rather than making push to solve the issues with diplomacy, the conflict was only aggravated. When there is discontent and civil war leaves a country open to being exploited to commercial …show more content…
It was essentially reacting to the corrupt one-party rule of Joseph Momoh, who ruled from 1985 to 1992, Foday Sankoh, a political outsider and former corporal in the Sierra Leone Army, formed the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and began an armed insurrection, with Taylor. On March 23, 1991, the RUF and National Patriotic Front for Liberia (NPFL) invaded the Kailahun district in Sierra Leone from neighbouring Liberia, itself in the midst of a bloody civil war. Two other attachments invaded south-eastern Sierra Leone, engaged the Sierra Leone Army, and moved inland to gain more control over the country. In its attempt to gain control over towns and villages, RUF members informed civilians that they were freedom fighters working to save Sierra Leoneans from the ruling All Peoples’ Congress. The wanton killing of civilians was common in nearly every place the RUF/NPFL arrived, as was the looting of property. The RUF took advantage of the situation using propaganda on a vulnerable population, including children, their political motives not entirely clear, but the effects of their ravaging can still be seen throughout Sierra Leone today. To say they prolonged the violence, would be an understatement, as they created generations of amputees and left their undisguisable mark on Sierra