In 1980 Liberia was a fantastic place to live in was a place to raise children. Africa's oldest republic fell to a coup by indigenous soldiers in April 1980. The leader of the coup was Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, he was a poorly educated member of the Krahn group. One of the poorest and the most unknown of all of the Liberian people. This war took place 1989-1997 under Charles Taylors control. Doe received nearly $500 million in aid, more than Liberia had received from the United States in its previous 130 years, making it next to Isreal. Doe used most of the money to build up and improve his army. He recruited a large number of new soldiers most of them being Krahn. New barracks, uniforms, and weapons for them. By the mid 1980's the excesses of the Doe administration were becoming an embarrassment for the Reagan White House. While the more educated reformers left his government or began to engage in the widespread corruption themselves, the government's capacity to run the country was at an all time low. Doe attempted to stop the corruption but he was too dependent on the ministers involved to remove them. Meanwhile the United States was pressuring Doe to hold elections under the constitution that had been ratified by nearly 80% of the voters in 1983 In 1985 the election were held and Doe stole the elections or at least by a Liberians standard. When the increasingly hated dictator, now the elected president, a group of angry civilians and military officers led by Quiwonkpa attempted a coup.
A picture of LiberiaSamuel DoeThe war in Liberia
Initially successful in seizing key points, the coup planners convinced the populace they had won, leading many opponents to come out openly against Doe. But that horribly failed and broke out into fighting against the coup forces and the Israeli trained elite pro-Doe brigades the dictator won the day. Quiwokpa came from the Gio and Mano ethnic areas of Liberia, many of his supporters also came from those two groups, both of which had had rivalries with the nearby Krahn for decades. Thousands were killed in the Gio and Mano areas, planing animosities that would later use to topple Doe. Doe's final years of presidency were marked with repression, corruption, incompetence, and regional political maneuvering, all of which helped with the new president's fall and the collapse of his Second Liberian Republic. The regional element was a key in Doe's demise. Tolbert, the president Doe has assassinated, had been a close ally of Felix Houphonet-Boigny.Which made a huge feud between the two presidents. As the leader became more erratic and repressive in the late 1980's, Houphouet-Boigny offered his territory as a base for anti-Doe forces, including those headed by Charles Taylor. Taylor served in the early Doe administration as head of the General Services Administration the agency responsible for government supplies.On Christmas Eve 1989 Taylor led his foce consisting of several hundred men and known as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) into the Mano and Gio areas of Liberia. These people hated Sam Doe the most. Within a few weeks his army into several thousands of people.Equipped with heavy weapons. Over several months Taylors forces controlled most of the countryside.
Though fighting along enthic lines between the Mano and the Gio on the one hand and the Krahn on the other resulted in several hundred deaths. By May he had Monrovia surrounded, and in July, he launched what he hoped would be the final thing to take down Doe once and for all. Announcing he would cause anymore commotion if the president had resigned.Several events prevented Taylor from victory that summer. First, a breakaway faction known as the Independant National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) and headed by a former Taylor lieutenant named Prince Johnson engaged in fighting with NPFL. Even more important in blocking Taylor was the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) forces in the fall ECOWAS had been set up largely by the Nigerians in 1975 and soon emerged as both an economic grouping and a mutual security force. In August 1990 ECOWAS tried to settle differences between INPFL and NPFL to ease Doe from power. But they failed in the process. Taylor knew Nigeria stood opposed to him becuase of his alliance with Nigeria's main rival, the Ivory Cost refused to attend. Doe offered to resign in September under ECOWAS protection. Fear that Doe will fall into the hands of Taylor, ECOWAS turned him over to Taylor's rival Prince Johnson was a very unbalanced person did not help Doe to get out of the county. Instead he had Doe dismembered and killed, recording the even on video tape. They could have prevented the conflict by not preventing the government. They also could have prevented it if Samuel Doe would have left the country. In October, ECOWAS forces known as the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) launched its first offensive, otensibly to divide the warring factions but also to keep Taylor out of the capital. An Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) was the established, with Amos Sawyer (formerly Doe's mentor) as president. IGNU controlled a little bit of the country outside of Liberia. Following a series of failed cease-fires during 1991, another group emerged in the conflict. The INPFL faded, Doe's former supporters rallied to the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), which had established a base in the southwestern part of the country
Next to the border to Sierra Leone border Taylor accused Sierra Leone government of supporting ULIMO, and he consequently aided rebels into that country. The NPFL launched a new offensive against ECOMOG forces in the suburbs of Monrovia. During the attack, NPFL guerrillas murdered five American nuns earning the group Washington's condemnation. In November 1992, the United Nation announced an arms embargo against all factions in Liberia except ECOMOG. But the ban had little effect, as the NPFL became more sophisticated in its ablility to plunder national resources in exchange for guns. Thus major battle broke out around the Firestone Rubber plantation in the interior and near the port of Buchanan, Liberia's second-largest city, in early 1993. At the same time fighting intensified in the western part of the country as ULIMO went on the offensive against NPFL positions there. But by this time. ULIMO itself had split into two factions. ULIMO-J, headed by Roosevelt Johnson, was largely composed of KRahn men and had loose ties to the remnants of the AFL. Its bases spread along the Sierra Leone border. ULIMO-K, led by Alhaji Kromah, was made up of Mandingos, an Islamic minority widely resented in Liberia for their goofiness and wierd behavior. With various forces fighting fiercely for control for the country's natural resources in order to barter weapons civilians deaths were off the charts. In June more than 600 refugees mostly Krahn, were killed around the Harbel Rubber Plantation Taylors forces were to blame for this. The U.N security council declared that it would take out an faction that refused to abide by the accords signed by various parties. In July a conference of all the warring factions was held in Geneva,Benin in July. Around 250,000 people were killed in the Liberian civil war.
Source Card:
Author: James Ciment
Title: Encyclopedia of World Conflicts Since WWII, 2nd edition
Publisher: Sharpe Reference
Date: 2007
Place: Armonk, NY
Pages: None
Liberia
In 1980 Liberia was a fantastic place to live in was a place to raise children. Africa's oldest republic fell to a coup by indigenous soldiers in April 1980. The leader of the coup was Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, he was a poorly educated member of the Krahn group. One of the poorest and the most unknown of all of the Liberian people. This war took place 1989-1997 under Charles Taylors control. Doe received nearly $500 million in aid, more than Liberia had received from the United States in its previous 130 years, making it next to Isreal. Doe used most of the money to build up and improve his army. He recruited a large number of new soldiers most of them being Krahn. New barracks, uniforms, and weapons for them. By the mid 1980's the excesses of the Doe administration were becoming an embarrassment for the Reagan White House. While the more educated reformers left his government or began to engage in the widespread corruption themselves, the government's capacity to run the country was at an all time low. Doe attempted to stop the corruption but he was too dependent on the ministers involved to remove them. Meanwhile the United States was pressuring Doe to hold elections under the constitution that had been ratified by nearly 80% of the voters in 1983 In 1985 the election were held and Doe stole the elections or at least by a Liberians standard. When the increasingly hated dictator, now the elected president, a group of angry civilians and military officers led by Quiwonkpa attempted a coup.
Initially successful in seizing key points, the coup planners convinced the populace they had won, leading many opponents to come out openly against Doe. But that horribly failed and broke out into fighting against the coup forces and the Israeli trained elite pro-Doe brigades the dictator won the day. Quiwokpa came from the Gio and Mano ethnic areas of Liberia, many of his supporters also came from those two groups, both of which had had rivalries with the nearby Krahn for decades. Thousands were killed in the Gio and Mano areas, planing animosities that would later use to topple Doe. Doe's final years of presidency were marked with repression, corruption, incompetence, and regional political maneuvering, all of which helped with the new president's fall and the collapse of his Second Liberian Republic. The regional element was a key in Doe's demise. Tolbert, the president Doe has assassinated, had been a close ally of Felix Houphonet-Boigny.Which made a huge feud between the two presidents. As the leader became more erratic and repressive in the late 1980's, Houphouet-Boigny offered his territory as a base for anti-Doe forces, including those headed by Charles Taylor. Taylor served in the early Doe administration as head of the General Services Administration the agency responsible for government supplies.On Christmas Eve 1989 Taylor led his foce consisting of several hundred men and known as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) into the Mano and Gio areas of Liberia. These people hated Sam Doe the most. Within a few weeks his army into several thousands of people.Equipped with heavy weapons. Over several months Taylors forces controlled most of the countryside.
Though fighting along enthic lines between the Mano and the Gio on the one hand and the Krahn on the other resulted in several hundred deaths. By May he had Monrovia surrounded, and in July, he launched what he hoped would be the final thing to take down Doe once and for all. Announcing he would cause anymore commotion if the president had resigned.Several events prevented Taylor from victory that summer. First, a breakaway faction known as the Independant National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL) and headed by a former Taylor lieutenant named Prince Johnson engaged in fighting with NPFL. Even more important in blocking Taylor was the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) forces in the fall ECOWAS had been set up largely by the Nigerians in 1975 and soon emerged as both an economic grouping and a mutual security force. In August 1990 ECOWAS tried to settle differences between INPFL and NPFL to ease Doe from power. But they failed in the process. Taylor knew Nigeria stood opposed to him becuase of his alliance with Nigeria's main rival, the Ivory Cost refused to attend. Doe offered to resign in September under ECOWAS protection. Fear that Doe will fall into the hands of Taylor, ECOWAS turned him over to Taylor's rival Prince Johnson was a very unbalanced person did not help Doe to get out of the county. Instead he had Doe dismembered and killed, recording the even on video tape. They could have prevented the conflict by not preventing the government. They also could have prevented it if Samuel Doe would have left the country. In October, ECOWAS forces known as the ECOWAS Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) launched its first offensive, otensibly to divide the warring factions but also to keep Taylor out of the capital. An Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) was the established, with Amos Sawyer (formerly Doe's mentor) as president. IGNU controlled a little bit of the country outside of Liberia. Following a series of failed cease-fires during 1991, another group emerged in the conflict. The INPFL faded, Doe's former supporters rallied to the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO), which had established a base in the southwestern part of the country
Next to the border to Sierra Leone border Taylor accused Sierra Leone government of supporting ULIMO, and he consequently aided rebels into that country. The NPFL launched a new offensive against ECOMOG forces in the suburbs of Monrovia. During the attack, NPFL guerrillas murdered five American nuns earning the group Washington's condemnation. In November 1992, the United Nation announced an arms embargo against all factions in Liberia except ECOMOG. But the ban had little effect, as the NPFL became more sophisticated in its ablility to plunder national resources in exchange for guns. Thus major battle broke out around the Firestone Rubber plantation in the interior and near the port of Buchanan, Liberia's second-largest city, in early 1993. At the same time fighting intensified in the western part of the country as ULIMO went on the offensive against NPFL positions there. But by this time. ULIMO itself had split into two factions. ULIMO-J, headed by Roosevelt Johnson, was largely composed of KRahn men and had loose ties to the remnants of the AFL. Its bases spread along the Sierra Leone border. ULIMO-K, led by Alhaji Kromah, was made up of Mandingos, an Islamic minority widely resented in Liberia for their goofiness and wierd behavior. With various forces fighting fiercely for control for the country's natural resources in order to barter weapons civilians deaths were off the charts. In June more than 600 refugees mostly Krahn, were killed around the Harbel Rubber Plantation Taylors forces were to blame for this. The U.N security council declared that it would take out an faction that refused to abide by the accords signed by various parties. In July a conference of all the warring factions was held in Geneva,Benin in July. Around 250,000 people were killed in the Liberian civil war.
For more information about Liberia visit how to resolve the conflict http://www.cartercenter.org/countries/liberia.html
For videos on whats happening in Liberia visit http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/africa/01/18/vbs.liberia/index.html
For information about the other ethnic groups of Liberia visit http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Liberia-ETHNIC-GROUPS.html
Source Card:
Author: James Ciment
Title: Encyclopedia of World Conflicts Since WWII, 2nd edition
Publisher: Sharpe Reference
Date: 2007
Place: Armonk, NY
Pages: None
Liberia,The Carter Center, April 15, 2010
Liberia, BBC, April 15, 2010