The Failure Of The Sierra Leone Civil War

A continent known for its diverse population and natural resources, Africa is home to the small West African country Sierra Leone. In the late 1600s, Sierra Leone was the first place to ever house, sell, and trade transatlantic slaves (Edsall, Healey, and O’Donnell). Nearly a decade later in 1787, “British abolitionists and philanthropists establish[ed] a settlement in Freetown, for repatriated and rescued slaves”(“Sierra Leone Country Profile”). The British had control of Sierra Leone until April 27th, 1961, when Sierra Leone was finally declared independent (“Sierra Leone Country Profile”). Once independent, Sierra Leone had trouble forming their own government. Their first attempt ended with a military coup in 1967 because the government “failed to represent all [the] people equally” (Edsall, Healey, and
This military coup eventually ended in 1978 when the constitution was finally rewritten and the government was then to be represented as a one-party system. This too caused many problems. In 1991, Sierra Leone decided to rewrite their constitution yet again, this time they returned to the multiparty system. Instead of the country becoming a full on democracy with its problems settled, there was another coup in 1992. This specific coup resulted in a civil war between the violent rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF) and the National Provisional Ruling Council (Edsall, Healey, and O’Donnell). This civil war resulted in the death of 50,000, and abuse, rape, and life altering injuries to many others (Shah). In 1999, the Lome Peace Agreement was “signed in order to placate the RUF leaders with political positions and to bring United Nations peacekeepers into the country, but it failed to achieve lasting peace” (Edsall, Healey, and O’Donnell). After many years of grueling war, the process of disarmament, and many ceasefire agreements, the civil war was declared to be over in January of 2002 (Edsall, Healey,