Sierra Leone Civil War Research.

The Sierra Leone civil war was actually very interesting to read about because I have not researched this before. This civil war began on March 23, 1991. It started when the Revolutionary United Front, with the help of the special forces of Charles Taylor’s National Patriotic Front of Liberia, intervened in the Sierra Leone in an attempt to overthrow the Joseph Momoh government. This civil war had lasted eleven years and ended up leaving over 50,000 dead.

In March 1996, the Sierra Leone installed an elected civilian government and the retreating Revolutionary United Front signed the Abidjan Peace Accord. With this the new government declared the war over. It was shocking to hear after this announcement a wave of looting, rape, and murder followed. This was a reflection on the international dismay at the overturning of the civilian government. Then in 1999, world leaders had intervened diplomatically to promote negotiations between the Revolutionary United Front and the government. Later that year another peace treaty was signed and implemented. They had came to the conclusion that Lome would give the commander of the Revolutionary United Front the vice presidency and control of the Sierra Leone’s diamond mines in return for the ending of the fighting and the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force to monitor the disarmament process. Of January 2002 the President declared the Sierra Leone Civil War over.

While reading this, I thought it was interesting that diamonds are such an important attribute to this area. I decided to look more into this to see what exactly I could find about the diamonds and the good it brings. So what I discovered is that in the Eastern and Southern districts in Sierra Leone they are rich in alluvial diamonds, and more importantly are easily accessible! All someone needs is a shovel, sieve, and transport. I thought this was fascinating because we do not see this in the United States, so I was surprised to read about this. The phenomenon whereby countries with an abundance of natural resources tend to nonetheless be characterized by lower levels of economic development is known as the “resource curse”. By the late 1980’s almost all of Sierra Leone’s diamonds were being smuggled and traded illegally, with revenues going directly into the hands of the private investor.

Reading further it was explained that diamonds weren’t the only significant factor in the civil war. Gold mining and even cash crop through forced labor was well known. Looting was also seen with currency, household items, food, livestock, cars, and international aid shipments. Joining this rebel cause for Sierra Leoneans was an opportunity to seize property. But something I read that seemed important to note, is that the reason why the civil war should not be held over the account of the economic benefits from the alluvial diamond mines is because before the actual civil war there was years of poor governance, poverty, corruption and oppression which had created the circumstances for the rise of this civil war to take place.