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📘 Sierra Leone's civil war began in a country weakened by unequal rule

Sierra Leone became independent in 1961 with a parliamentary system, mineral wealth, and a political class expected to build a national state. In practice, access to education, public employment, and political influence was uneven, while pa

5
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~25 min
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Adults
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What you’ll learn

  1. A postcolonial state becomes vulnerableExplain how unequal institutions, regional war, diamond extraction, and security weakness made Sierra Leone vulnerable to insurgency.Political exclusion and weak protection made an armed challenge possible, while diamonds helped sustain it.
  2. Coup, intervention, and civilian ruleConnect the 1992 coup, 1996 election, 1997 junta, ECOMOG intervention, and attacks on Freetown to the problem of legitimate security.Civilian authority returned, but external force and unstable armed institutions kept sovereignty fragile.
  3. Lomé and the problem of implementationAssess how the Lomé Agreement, amnesty, UNAMSIL, civilian protection, and the 2000 crisis shaped peace implementation.The agreement built a political route out of war, but enforcement and accountability remained contested.
  4. Disarmament, recovery, and a negotiated endingDescribe how DDR, the 2001 ceasefire, the 2002 end of war and election, and postwar justice changed the political order.Peace became more credible when fighters had alternatives and institutions could replace armed bargaining.
  5. What peace changed and what it did notEvaluate UNAMSIL's transition, resource governance, refugee return, and the institutional limits of Sierra Leone's postwar peace.The war ended, but durable peace required accountable institutions beyond the battlefield.

Questions this course answers

Why are diamonds not a complete explanation of Sierra Leone's civil war?

Diamonds helped finance armed control, but political and institutional conditions shaped how that resource became a source of conflict.

What did the RUF's 1991 invasion reveal about Sierra Leone's security order?

The movement entered through Liberia but found domestic political grievances and weak protection that made expansion possible.

Why did the 1996 election not end the war?

A vote strengthened representation, but armed authority and security capacity remained contested.

What did ECOMOG's intervention demonstrate?

ECOMOG returned Kabbah, but the need for intervention showed that national authority was still fragile.

What did the Lomé Agreement try to combine?

The agreement treated political inclusion and armed demobilization as linked parts of a settlement.

Why was the amnesty controversial?

The incentive for peace and the demand for justice pulled in different directions.

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