Sierra Leone Civil War Research Paper

The change in Sierra Leone culture is one of the first consequences of war seen in the story. Throughout the civil war the rebels (RUF) recruited or forced many children to become soldiers. In order to get these children they would raid villages and then draft the strongest ones. They would then tell the children that they would not need their families

Before reading “A Long Way Gone,” I was not at all familiar with the civil wars occurring in Sierra Leone. I didn’t know anything about Sierra Leone’s political dynamics either, however I could infer much about what might be going on there if asked. At least that is what I thought. That is until I read part of Ishmael’s memoir. I figured, previously to reading the memoir, that civil wars began as a result of some generally good reason, and were continued for a generally good reason. The civil wars in Sierra Leone, as I read, were quite the opposite, rather blind fight for power, as narrated by Beah, “A lot of things were done with no reason or explanation.” It is also implied that each side in the war believed that they themselves were doing

¹A cilvic war of corruption have turned apart the relationships of Sierra Leone and the trust among its people, its travesty esstitally have destroy once peaceful community. Prior to the cilvic war, the people of Sierra Leoner have shared an intimate relationship with each other, they were a tight communities, until the war took away their lives, forcefully turning the family against each other.

Whilst leading to civilians fleeing Sudan and Sierra Leone to start new lives. The histories behind both wars are quite similar as both were solely motivated by natural resources and power imbalance. As The Revolutionary United Front had established in 1991 as rebel army that shared one goal, which was to overthrow Sierra Leone's government. Often referred to as the “Blood Diamond” era in certain African countries. Although diamonds and natural resources were a significant motivating factor, there were other causes of the Sierra Leone Civil War. Such as the pre-war frustrations and injustices that had transpired for decades. More than twenty years of poor governance, poverty and corruption created a setting for the RUF causing a rebellion, as civilians desired for change in Sierra Leone. Corruption and mismanagement led to the downfall of the country leading to an increase of recruits for the RUF. For Sierra Leoneans who did not have access to cultivating land, joining the rebel cause was an opportunity to seize property with deadly force. After leaving over 50 000 casualties and 2.6 million citizens displaced from Sierra Leone. The war came to an end in 2002 concluding in a loss for the

On March 23rd, 1991, a civil war started between the Sierra Leonean Government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). This war had an enormous impact on everyone in and around the country, especially young civilian boys who were taken from their families and homes to become child soldiers. One of these former government soldiers is Ishmael Beah, who was brought into this battle between powers at only 13 years old. Throughout his lifetime, he has had to confront many challenges and conflicts, most of which can be found in his memoir, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier.” After reading his memoir, I have gained much knowledge on the topic of both the Sierra Leone Civil War and the issue of children becoming soldiers. The themes of this

The Guatemalan civil war began because the government and military were greatly abusing the citizen’s human rights. In result to this communist led gorillas began an active political war of terror in 1961. There underlying cause of this is the discontent both politically and economically between the people and the government. Economically the government supported the domination of an elite class in society. This

In a study done by Catherine Bolten 2002, the civilians living in Makeni, Sierra Leone, describe their relationship with the ex-combatants of the Revolutionary

On March 23, 1991, the civil war in Sierra Leone began when the RUF attempted to overthrow the Sierra Leone government. The war lasted a total of 11 years ending in 2002 with a estimated total of 50,000 people dead. In the beginning the RUF did not have enough soldiers to fight, so on the idea that the Sierra Leone government would not fire on children, they began recruiting kids as young as seven. After a while the government too had a lack of soldiers and began recruiting children. In 2002 after the RUF been defeated President Kabbah declared the Sierra Leone Civil War over.

The government continued to be extremely corrupt, there were still ethnic tensions, and Liberia, the neighboring country, was in its own civil war spreading violence into Sierra Leone. Along with that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was formed. This group overran the diamond mines of Sierra Leone and caused enough trouble for the military to have to get involved launching Sierra Leone’s civil war on March 23, 1991. For further reading into causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone click this link. The civil war lasted much longer for one reason being the vast amounts of diamonds. To the right you can see an image of the illegal diamond mining in Sierra Leone. The RUF funded their rebellious cause selling the diamonds, and since they are sold to fund war they are known as blood diamonds. In order to end the civil war Britain once again had to step into Sierra Leone and send its own military to stop the brutal civil war finally ending the 11 year war on January 18, 2002. (Sierra Leone, Royal African Society). If you would like to view more on Sierra Leone’s civil war the following links are to videos documenting the events of the war: link (long video est.1 hr 30 min), link (short video est. 14

“young men who would attach themselves to local warlords for material benefit and training program.” (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 125) For those “excluded and educationally-disadvantaged youth underclass,” joining the army and war was a hope to escape the current social status. (Richard 1996, p. 174) The social status of the class of youth in Sierra Leone is ‘neither citizen nor subject,’ said Fanthorpe. (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 126) “The youth of Sierra Leone are required to ‘negotiate’ their identities. (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 126) Secondly, the commercialized culture of war was a strong influence on youth in Sierra Leone. “The young males combatants and even commanders modeled themselves on well-known rebel leaders, in style of dress and speech.” (Shepler, Youthscapes, p. 127) Students in school even symbolized pencils as weapons. The “globalized youth culture” made rebel became the figure that youth would like to be. (Shepler, Youthscapes, p.

The Civil War, in El Salvador, took place from 1980 until 1992. The government, guerilla groups, and parliamentary forces were all a part of this war. This war affected many citizens because their rights were disregarded, they were treated barbarically, and more than 75,000 Salvadorans were killed during this war (El Salvador). Families and individuals

First, Nigerian’s intervention in the peace mission attracts some benefits such as re-establishing the nation as the giant of Africa, international laurels won, solidification of the bilateral affiliation between Nigeria and Sierra Leone, expansion of trade relations and improved economic investments in Sierra Leone. More so, it was gathered from the study that the mission led to a decline in GDP from 8.2% in 1991 to only 1 % in 1994 which indicated a drop in the Nigerian economy. This implies that the cost of Nigeria peace keeping in Sierra Leone brought about a decline in economic development. In conclusion, it was observed in Abubakar’s study that the cost of peace accounting outweighed its benefits.

The civil war lasted 14 years, ending in 2003. This was the main cause of Liberia’s under- developed energy sources. The civil war left devastating effects on the city of Monrovia. Important power stations were targeted by the other side, causing people to lose power for the entire duration of the civil war and afterwards as it is extremely costly to repair these power stations. After the war, looters took away anything that was left undestroyed by the war. Ultimately they were left with absolutely. Electricity was cut off to people across the city, damaging lives and work areas. People have had to live without proper access to electricity,

Building a nation… Slavery, Independence, Constitution, Military coups to Presidential elections! Senior Enlisted leaders, it is important to know that the freedoms we all prefer comes with a cost of sacrifice, bloodshed, and for some, nation before self for democracy. This essay will discuss the background, government, strategic importance, and future direction of Sierra Leone.

The Angola conflict was a civil war that was located in the South African state of Angola. This 27 year long civil war, that killed an estimated 800,000 people and displace 4 million people, broke out on 11 November 1975, right after the Portuguese colonial rule, and ended in 2002. Similar to many other post colonial states, Angola suffered both social and economical struggles which lead to a power struggle between three predominant liberation movements. It is important for us to study this civil war as we can learn many lessons from this major event in history, and make use of the information gathered from this to help us understand how these similar conflicts have started off and have developed to this state. Hence I would be analysing