Sierra Leone Civil War Essay

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Sierra Leone’s civil war lead to the displacement of over one million people, with brutal killings and children armed with guns, all for the sake of power. Sierra Leone is the most abundant country in the world, based off resources. The main resource being diamonds. Leone is known for its quantity of diamonds, but due to the leadership, it is one of the poorest countries in the world. Even though the Joseph Momoh government was the cause of the mass destruction of Sierra Leone, due to the fact the leaders were unwilling to adapt to the needs of the people, Sierra Leone's civil war was founded off the distribution, or lack of distribution, of resources to its citizens. The government had weakened, corrupt leaders were in power, adaptations to fit the needs of the country were not taking place, children were used as soldiers, and the citizen's were not the top priority. This caused an uprise in fighting for equality, which turned this civil war into a genocide. …show more content…

He was a Major-General in the military and because of this was thought of as a proper candidate for the role of becoming the president. When he won the polls, his first act was granting himself control over the economy, from its diamond mines to its sea trade. The citizens began to see him as weak and overlooked those under him, who had affairs not concerning the welfare of the country, to take action. Most of these affairs were not known of until it was too late to fix, and instead benefitted only personal wealth. Due to the lack of wisdom with handling the economy and its wealth, Sierra Leone found that the imported items was costing Leone money they did not have, which put them into debt. Their currency value had gone down as well, even reaching a point where the entire country was without electricity and running water for months at a time (BBC

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