ECOMOG, PMCs, the United Nations, and Britain in Sierra Leone

The civil war in Sierra Leone stretched over one decade and largely commenced with internal civic animosity of principally students, intellectuals, and unemployed rural youth against a corrupt and inept government and external factors with neighboring Liberia. A group of young rebels named the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) emerged to invade Sierra Leone from its eastern border in March 1991 and call for multiparty elections. All multiple belligerent parties that included several splinter groups from the armed forces such as the National Provisional Ruling Council, Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) and its later alliance with the RUF, the RUF rebels, the West Side Boys splintering from the AFRC, and the pro-government Kamajors/Civil Defense Forces engaged in violent acts and human rights abuses that expanded their mandates of taking control of Sierra Leone to establish a more harmonious state of affairs. When the RUF rebels controlled many diamond fields, including within the Kono District, they also sought sole profitable gain to fund the war and exchange of diamonds for weapons from Liberia. Therefore, the Sierra Leonean government and the RUF rebels were inept in creating a more harmonious state of affairs and the activities of the multiple belligerents exceeded the types of violence that are permissible under Afro-communitarian ethics. However, foreign armed intervention from the Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group, the South African Executive Outcomes, and the United Nations prevented the RUF rebels from reaching central Freetown and recaptured several key diamond mining sites across the country. The British brought an end to the civil war by responding to the hostage crisis that delivered a more harmonious state of affairs.