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Essay on Sierra Leone civil war
Essay on Sierra Leone civil war
Essay on Sierra Leone civil war
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During the 1900’s two deadly wars were raging on, the civil war in Sierra Leone and the genocide in Rwanda. The civil war in Sierra Leone began in March 1991, while the genocide began in 1994. Combined these two wars killed upward of 1,050,000 people, and affected the lives of all the people that lived there. The conflicts in Sierra Leone and Rwanda occurred for different major reasons, but many little aspects were similar. Politics and Ethnicity were the two main conflicts, but despite the different moments rebellions and the murder of innocent people occurred in both places.
Politics was the factor that caused the Sierra Leone Civil War, while ethnicity and years of oppression fueled the genocide in Rwanda. These two causes are vastly different, and caused for two different results. The Sierra Leone Civil War was caused by political corruption, years before the war started in 1991 Sierra Leone’s government and economy was rapidly declining. In 1968 Siaka Stevens was elected into the presidential position and when he stepped down 17 years later, 1985, the country was completely ...
Being located in the west coast of Africa and between Guinea and Liberia, “Sierra Leone has an abundance of easily extractable diamonds”(BBC News). The diamonds had brought “encouragement” for violence in the country in 1991. Attacks of the Revolutionary “United Front (RUF) ,led by former army corporal Foday Sankoh”(Encyclopedia Britannica), were on government military and civilians. In response to a corrupt government, the RUF performed violent and terrorist acts that scarred many. “The RUF captured civilians and forced them to work”(Analyzing the Causes) in their army to gain control over Sierra Leone. The savages went a...
There was a war in Sierra Leone, Africa, from 1991 to 2002 where a rebel army stormed through African villages amputating and raping citizens left and right (“Sierra Leone Profile”). Adebunmi Savage, a former citizen of Sierra Leone, describes the reality of this civil war:
The Sierra Leone Civil War was a savage conflict that would rage for over a decade, claiming the lives of 300,000 and displacing 2.5 million civilians. The Bite of the Mango and A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier are firsthand accounts of children affected by the war. Mariatu Kamara had her hands severed and was left for dead. Ishmael Beah was conscripted by the government army to fight the rebel forces. Ishmael and Mariatu were both victims of the bloody Sierra Leone civil war, however their journeys to safety were vastly different.
In the early 1990s, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) of Sierra Leone, led by former military agents invaded Sierra Leone from Liberia. The RUF initially said they were leading a political movement. Their main goals were to promote liberation, democracy, and freedom. They said they wanted justice and equality for all civilians living in Sierra Leone. In spite of what the RUF said they were doing, they were forceful and left trails of murder in their path. When civilians lacked support for the “political revolution”, the RUF started a decade long war that ravaged the country as a whole. The RUF developed a sense of structured, militarized violence. It created a climate of opportunities for average civilians to obtain cheap weapons. With the greater access to weapons for civilians and the RUF, the politics became more militarized also. As the war waged on, poverty rose and people began to resort to looting of national resources. Laws diminished and seemed to lack any strength against the brute force of the RUF and their civilian followers (Denov, 2010).
The genocides of the 20th century which occurred in Rwanda and Germany had striking similarities, something that should have alerted the world to stop them. At the core of these two massacres, patterns existed that outlined how similar thinking and reasoning could lead to something as horrible as these two events. One can see how both groups used their command of knowledge as a way to control the people, how the rest of the world refused to step up to stop the killings, and how the people were thought of as less than humans to provide a just cause for such terrible acts.
Africa has been an interesting location of conflicts. From the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to the revolutionary conflict in Libya and Egypt, one of the greatest conflicts is the Rwandan Genocide. The Rwandan Genocide included two tribes in Rwanda: Tutsis and Hutus. Upon revenge, the Hutus massacred many Tutsis and other Hutus that supported the Tutsis. This gruesome war lasted for a 100 days. Up to this date, there have been many devastating effects on Rwanda and the global community. In addition, many people have not had many acknowledgements for the genocide but from this genocide many lessons have been learned around the world.
When the Rwandan Hutu majority betrayed the Tutsi minority, a destructive mass murdering broke out where neighbor turned on neighbor and teachers killed their students; this was the start of a genocide. In this paper I will tell you about the horrors the people of Rwanda had to face while genocide destroyed their homes, and I will also tell you about the mental trauma they still face today.
The acts of violence that were performed by rebels in Africa were horrific. Adults and children were murdered, mutilated, tortured, and raped. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone performed despicable acts of cutting off a people's body parts with machetes to instill fear in the community. If you were working in the diamond mines and not performing up to the standards of the rebels you would lose a body part as punishment. Rebels would continue to do this from one village to another in order “to take control of the mines in the area” (Hoyt). It is estimated that in Sierra Leone that over 20,000 people suffered mutilation. The acts that the rebels performed to these innocent victims was clearly a violation to their human rights. The RUF collected 125 million a year to fund their war on the government and the people of Sierra Leone.
The Sierra Leone Civil War lasted eleven years and left Sierra Leone scared and unconstructed. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) bombarded the country but faced constant resistance from the Sierra Leone Military. Both sides relied heavily on child soldiers throughout the war and a projected 5,000 to 10,000 child soldiers were collectively used by both the Sierra Leone government and the RUF. These children forcibly entered into a life of violence and oppression, and they have since struggled to reintegrate back into society. Child soldiers have returned home with no family or future and many still face severe complications.
"Rwanda Genocide." Global Issues in Context Online Collection. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Global Issues In Context. Web. 12 Apr. 2010.
It was early in April when the disaster of Rwanda happened. When the president of Rwanda , Juvènal Habyarimana, was assassinated. After the president was assassinated thats when the fighting and killings started. A guy who has won the Pulitzer Prize twice said the most vivid thing from his assignment was hearing all the scream. The Hutu militia was killing everyone and everything that had crossed their path. The stench of dead bodies was everoywhere and filled the air everywhere you went and because of the smell everyone would get sick and vomit everywhere. People would build crosses with twigs and set the twigs on fire because it was cold and they needed a way to get warm.
Rwanda, a little territory residing in east-central Africa, resembles close to the size of Maryland. Many believe that the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded by European explorers in 1854. It was occupied by Belgian troops during World War I. On January 28, 1961 it became known as Rwandan Republic. On July 1, 1962 they established their independence from Belgium and then on June 4, 2003 it became known as the Republic of Rwanda. Rwanda has come a long way since its founding. Now one of the largest regions in Africa as far as population and economic growth, Rwanda continues to grow. Though some say that the poverty level remains much more than any other region, it is still a place I want to visit.
When someone hears the word genocide, they usually think of the holocaust, where millions of Jews were tortured, experimented on, and executed simply because of their religious beliefs. However, there is more than one example of that word, eight genocides have occurred alone in the 20th century. (An estimated 170 million men, women and children have lost their lives to mass killings) Among those killed, Sierra Leone contributed over 50,000 of them. The terror, pain, and displacement caused by Sierra Leone and the Holocaust are unforgivable and unforgettable. Although Sierra Leone and the Holocaust are both genocides, the targets, goals, and leaders were polar opposites.
There have been over 9.5 million refugees and hundreds and thousands of people have been slaughtered in Africa that came from wars and conflicts in this third world country (globalissues.org). There are civil wars going on currently and in recent years such as Angola, where 500,000 people have been killed in the last 15 years due to fighting for rich resources such as diamonds and offshore oil. Many different groups within Angola continue to fight for these resources with the government supporting their actions. Resources from the land alone is often responsbile for groups within
Over a period from 1960-1965, the first Republic of the Congo experienced a period of serious crisis. There was a terrible war for power that displayed senseless violence and the desperation to rule. There were many internal conflicts among the people. The country eventually gained independence from Belgium. For many countries this would be a time for celebration. Unfortunately for the people of the Congo this became a time to forget. Almost immediately after independence and the general elections, the country went into civil war. Major developed cities like Katanga and Kasai wanted to be independent from the Lumumba government. Different factions started to fight the government and Katanga and Kasai tried to secede from the rest of the country out of fear of the mutinous army that was out of control looting and killing.