2 - The Sierra Leone Conflict

Summary

In the last decade of the twentieth century, which had been quite bloody with several deadly conflicts, Sierra Leone, a relatively small country in West Africa just about the size of Austria in Europe and the American State of South Carolina, became the scene of one of the “greatest human tragedies” in modern history. The Sierra Leone war, which officially started on March 23, 1991 and ended on January 18, 2002, gained notoriety around the world for its brutality and the commission of some of the worst atrocities against civilians ever witnessed in a contemporary conflict. The conflict, which was characterized by widespread killings, mass amputations, abductions of women and children, recruitment and use of children as combatants, rape, sexual violence against mostly women and underage girls (including their taking as “bush wives”), arson, pillage, looting and burning, is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of between fifty and seventy thousand people. It also led to the displacement of about 2.6 million of the country’s population of 5 million, the maiming of thousands of others, and the wanton destruction of private and public property.