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4 An Overview of the Sierra Leonean Crisis
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Osita Agbu 32 4 An Overview of the Sierra Leonean Crisis Background to the Crisis Sierra Leone is located on the South West Coast of Africa sandwiched between Guinea and Liberia. It has a landmass of 71,740 sq. km (i.e. 27,699 sq. miles), and has a population of about 5.2 million people, with capital at Freetown.1 It gained political independence from the United Kingdom on 27 April 1961. Beginning from 1991, Sierra Leone was embroiled in a brutal civil war, which witnessed the rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), fighting against three successive governments. In other words, this is a country that had been subjected to 10 years of continuous civil war with the resultant human and material destruction usually associated with such wars. In this war, the civilian populace bore the brunt of man’s bestiality to man. In terms of its economy, the country has since independence depended on the export of agricultural produce, minerals and marine resources. Principal among which include coffee, cocoa, palm kernels and palm oil. Of the mineral resources, which had helped to exacerbate the civil war, diamonds had for long played a major role in the economy. At certain periods, diamonds accounted for over 70 percent of the nation’s foreign exchange earnings. Gold, rutile and bauxite, have all also served as prime sources of revenue. Therefore, whether in terms of mineral resources or agricultural produce, and even marine or forest resources, Sierra Leone presents an enticing proposition for businessmen and soldiers of fortune. In terms of its ethnic composition, this is rather varied. Fourteen main groups form the bulk of the population. In the South and Southeast are mainly the Mendes, Sherbros, Vais, Kissis and Kono. In the North, the Femnes, Limbas, Kurankos, Mandingos, Susus and Yalunkas. In the western area, with the capital Freetown, there are visible intermixes among the various groups over the West Africa’s Trouble Spots and the Imperative for Peace-Building 33 generations, blurring the linguistic and cultural distinctions of any one group, especially the Creoles.2 The All Peoples Congress (APC) dominated the political history of Sierra Leone in the years shortly after independence in 1961 and for over twenty odd years in the main. In its early days, this party comprised northerners to be joined later by the Creoles of the western area and later by the Konos of the Eastern region, in a united opposition to the ruling Sierra Leone Peoples Party (SLPP). The civil war in Sierra Leone began when the RUF entered Eastern Sierra Leone at Bomaru in Kailahun District from Liberian territory controlled by Charles Taylor on 23 March 1991.3 The RUF predominantly formed by political exiles, mainly students and intellectuals initially had the political objective of overthrowing Joseph Momoh’s one-party rule and restoring multi-party democracy in the country. Some of the RUF rebels had gained warfare experience under the NPFL, and had learnt various aspects of guerrilla tactics. The RUF was subsequently encouraged and supplied logistics and materials by Charles Taylor, and also supported by Burkinabe and Liberian mercenaries for other selfish reasons. For Charles Taylor, his support was perceived as a way of getting back at Momoh’s government in Sierra Leone for supporting ECOMOG, and for allowing the ULIMO faction in Liberian conflict to operate out of the bases in Sierra Leone. For him also, the destabilization of the border area with Sierra Leone ensured that they could access parts of the clandestine trade in diamond from Sierra Leone.4 The RUF was headed by ageing Foday Sankoh and began just like the NPFL with a small band of around 100 fighters. However, through various forms of conscription of youths, its ranks soon swelled to several hundreds, and by the summer of 1991 it was in control of a significant amount of southern and eastern Sierra Leone. In summary, the rebels did not succeed in gaining any form of power in Sierra Leone until 1997, after six gruelling years of civil war and three military coups. President Momoh’s response to the rebel insurgency was both ineffective and unpopular, especially with the Sierra Leonean Army (SLA). It was therefore not very surprising when in May 1992, a group of junior SLA officers led by a 28-year-old Valentine Strasser overthrew Momoh. Still, the rebels continued their insurgency and Strasser had to seek security assistance from Nigeria, the Kamajors (a Sierra Leonean militia) and the private security company...