CONFLICTS IN AFRICA;A CASE STUDY OF SIERRA LEONE CIVIL WAR IN 1991.
By: Bamidele Jimoh (The Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro.)

Sierra Leone has seen serious and grotesque human rights violations since 1991 when the civil war erupted. According to Human rights watch, over 50,000 people have been killed to date, with over one million people having been displaced. There have been numerous factors contributing to these problems such as the Diamond connection, the gross abuses committed by both Rebel and Government forces and the problem of the current peace treaty.

While the rebel forces, the revolutionary United Front(RUF)have called the various governments corrupt and accused them of mismanagement of diamond and numerous resources. They themselves have committed a lot of atrocities such as rape and many had limbs amputated and many more. While RUF may have started from respectable aims, they themselves have been corrupted and attracted others who see the RUF as a way to get at the diamonds and benefits from it.

A crisis broke up and several thousands of people reported killed. Even it was reported in recent time that the atrocities in Sierra Leone are worse than that of the past. Before the current crisis, the height of the conflict was minimal, apart from the odd scandal in UK about their illegal arms shipments and the likes. This has generated to the extent that both sides made use of children of ages below 18 years during the crisis.

In all, the crisis lead to the intervention of the United Nations, when it has to help in the area of capturing the rebel around the diamond deposit and negotiating the possibility of a kind of peaceful resolution in Sierra Leon.