Sierra Leone

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Joseph Momoh was forced to keep the same corrupt government officials from the last administration. Momoh was liked by the Sierra Leaoneans because of his ties to the Army and he made speeches attacking the corruption in the government. The Cabinet members did not like Momoh for those exact reasons. An attempt to overthrow Momoh was staged in 1987 which ended in more than 60 government officials being arrested tried for their crimes. In 1991 Momoh revised the constitution making a multi-party system again. That was also the year the Civil War started. What will eventually turn into the RUF was originally a “unit” for a different paramilitary force. The civil war in neighboring Liberia had been raging for some time between the government and the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, lead by Charles Taylor. Charles Taylor agreed to train and supply a paramilitary force in Sierra Leone for their own civil war if they would agree to attack UN peacekeeping bases in Sierra Leone. The bases were mostly filled with mostly Nigerian troops who had been fighting with the Liberian Government against Charles Taylor’s NPFL. Foday Sankoh was a former Sierra Leonean Army Corporal with training in Britain and the USA along side some of the best soldiers in the world. Disagreeing with corruption in the government he left the Army. He was the leader of the RUF, put in charge by Charles Taylor. After helping Charles Taylor and training his troops, Sankoh set his eyes on his own Government, which was so corrupt and disorganized it had no way of defending itself. The RUF invaded from Liberia and within a month of entering Sierra Leone Sankoh's paramilitary rebels controlled much of Eastern Sierra Leone, including the diamond mining area in Kono Distr... ... middle of paper ... ...s, this does little to rebuilt a shatter economy and political system, though. The government is still plagued with corruption, but President Kabbah, a good man who was elected by the people, is doing his best to deal with it and restore order. Almost 90% of Sierra Leone’s debt was forgiven, but a ban of diamond mining has yet to be lifting making it difficult to pay off any debt or rebuilt the country. It was obviously a very complex war, and if you break it down by individual involved you can see how their actions were not that terrible within itself. The whole situation escalated into something no one wanted, but at the same time, no one was prepared to compromise for the situation to improve. With so many people being moved from their homes, and such horrible atrocities being done it will be a long time before the mental and physical scars heal in Sierra Leone.

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