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Even though Liberia became independent well over 100 years before Sierra Leone freed itself from British colonial rule, the two neighbours seem to have shared similar political fates. It was therefore not surprising that the long-running civil war, which dismembered the entire Liberia state in the 1990s, could easily be exported to neighbouring Sierra Leone. When the fires finally seemed quenched in Liberia, they were blazing uncontrolled in Sierra Leone.
Influenced by events in Liberia, an armed group calling itself the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) launched a war in March 1991 from the eastern side of Sierra Leone's frontier with Liberia. The Sierra Leonean national army, with the help of ECOMOG, the West African sub-regional force on a peace mission in Liberia, tried in vain to get the situation under control. A section of the Sierra Leonean army exploited the situation and removed the government from power.
Despite this, RUF rebels continued their bush war. The RUF refused to take part in the internationally supervised parliamentary and presidential elections in 1996 that brought Ahmed Tejan Kabbah to power. There was another military take-over in 1997.The army had joined RUF to overthrow the Kabbah administration.
In February 1998, ECOMOG, responding to an attack by the forces of the military junta, brought President Kabbah back to power. Since then, Sierra Leone has known no peace. Today Sankoh and his RUF have become synonymous with some of the most barbaric atrocities committed against the innocent civilian population in recent memory. In addition, the rebels have repeatedly violated the Lome Peace Agreement upon which rested the hopes of the international community and the Sierra Leonean people.
In June 1998, the UN Security Council established the United Nations Observer Mission in Sierra Leone (UNOMSIL), charged with monitoring and advising on the disarmament and demobilization of combatants and a restructuring of the country's security. When the situation appeared to deteriorate, the Security Council established the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) on 22 October 1999. The mission mandate covered a variety of issues: from facilitation of the implementation of the Lome Peace Accord, through disarmament, demobilisation and integration of forces, to security, law enforcement and humanitarian matters.
Ghana remains deeply involved in peace activities in Sierra Leone. Ghanaian troops had been supervising the fragile peace in Sierra Leone even before the establishment of UNAMSIL. Following the spectacular advance of the RUF into Freetown, the Sierra Leonean capital, in January 1999, 100 Ghanaian soldiers serving ECOMOG were deployed to Sierra Leone. By May 2000, 803 Ghanaian soldiers had served in UNAMSIL, with the loss of two lives. |
