Sierra Leone Research Paper

HISTORICAL CAUSES OF SIERRA LEONE CIVIL WAR
The contemporary historical context of Sierra Leone dates to 1787. During this era, the black poor (which were ex-soldiers of the English army) dwelled on the Northern region of the Sierra Leone land. After, when the region of Freetown and its surroundings became a ‘Crown Colony of Britain 1808’, Sierra Leone was a utilized area for the British anti-slavery military unit in the Western parts of African (TRC 2004; Richards 1996). Thereafter, in 1896, when the remaining part of land within the Sierra Leone territory was announced a colonial rule of the British- of which was situated on a separate region of the two parts of land, began to form its shape (TRC 2004). This colonial investment made by …show more content…
The British only identified the Crown Colony as being an element of the British Empire while, at the same time, segregating the Protectorate into sub-groups of ‘chiefdoms’ and additionally exercising control over them, in an oblique manner. Concealed by this rule, rather than creating a resolute consolidate bureaucracy, the colonial rule granted the most influential chiefs (acknowledged as Paramount Chiefs) to have significant authority – i.e. decentralized despotism (named by Mamdani (1996)). Beneath the rule and safeguard of the British, the chiefdom became a career and inborn position, and the chiefs took part in dominant roles in domestic financial development and applied absolute authority over the native public by invoking their traditional rights (Keen 2003; Denov 2010; Peters …show more content…
From the time of the withdrawal of Executive Outcomes, the Kabbah government became over dependent on Nigeria and its troops to establish and sustain the cohesion in Sierra Leone (Olonisakin 2004 :23; Bangura 2002 :146-147). The ECOMOG forces (who were poorly equipped) could not retaliate uprising tactics endorsed by the beam RUF/AFRC forces. The augmented ECOMOG units succeeded in rescuing Freetown from the insurgents, however failed to attain total control of the whole of Sierra Leone. Consequently, the Kabbah government was forced to ratify a two-fold approach that involved a brisk quest of communication with the RUF/AFRC and the escalation of army activity against the association (Bangura 2002 :146-147). Lastly, on July 1999, a Peace Agreement was signed by two parties- Kabbah and Sankoh. This signing of the Lomé Peace Agreement authenticated by Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Ivory Coast, the Heads of State of Togo and Liberia. Additionally, four foreign groupings (ECOWAS, UN, Commonwealth and OAU) tagged with Togo took on the task of ‘moral guarantors’ which would assure that the Peace Agreement was applied with honour and sincerity by both groups (Abraham 2004b: 212). As time went by, it became clear that it was not possible to put forward the Peace Agreement although it favoured the RUF. Rather, the RUF decided to

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