 Began on March 23, 1991  Sides Involved  Revolutionary United Front (RUF) with help from Charles Taylor (from Liberia) Versus  All People’s Congress (APC) Presidents Siaka Stevens and Joseph Momoh had so much corruption that the economy almost collapsed Versus  Various other rebel groups and civilians  How The Fighting Went  RUF recruited children and radical teachers near Liberia  RUF stole government army fatigues and encouraged the people to believe the army was at fault for the fighting  Civilians were targets  RUF wanted control of the diamond mines

 11/1996: Peace Treaty, but RUF continued to fight  7/7/1999: Lome Peace Agreement: power- sharing plan that included rebels in the govn’t and required the RUF and other forces to surrender their weapons.  4/2000: UNAMSIL  Worked to implement a compromise based on the Lomé Agreement  Success w/ disarming many RUF rebels and the progovernment militia.  1/2002: Official end to the war

 In 11 years of civil war…  150,000 people died  More than half the country became homeless  600,000 refugees (12% of the population) fled to neighboring countries  More than 200,000 women were raped  Thousands of civilians suffered the amputation of one or more limbs.

Encyclopædia Britannica. "Sierra Leone." Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. (accessed July 1, 2010). Richards, Paul. "Sierra Leone." Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Vol. 2. (2005): =8de f8c58026cd9fc2834cb47&type=retrieve&tabID=T001& prodId=GIC&docId=CX &source=gale&userGroupName = hins30136&version=1.0 (accessed July 1, 2010).