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| Second Liberian Civil War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of theLiberian Civil Wars and spillover of theSierra Leone Civil War | |||||||
.png) Unidentified Liberian rebel fighters, includingchild soldiers, during the Second Liberian Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 RUFRDFG |
 Ivory Coast United Kingdom United States | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
 Charles TaylorBenjamin YeatenChucky TaylorSam Bockarie  | Gyude BryantSekou ConnehThomas Nimely Lansana Conté | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,250–1,500 (2002)[2] FAL: 11,000– 14,000 (2002) 12,000 (2003)[3] Militias:16,000 (2003)[3] | (2003):[3] 35,000 LURD 14,000 MODEL | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| ~50,000 killed[4] | |||||||
TheSecond Liberian Civil War was a civil war in the West African nation ofLiberia that lasted from 1999 to 2003. The war was mainly caused by transition failures after the First Civil War, especially the peace-building process which would result from re-integration, disarmament, rehabilitation and demobilization.[5]
PresidentCharles Taylor came to power in 1997 after victory in theFirst Liberian Civil War which led to two years of peace. TheLiberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD), an anti-Taylor rebel group backed by the government ofGuinea, invaded northern Liberia in mid-2000, seizing the city of Voinjama.[6] LURD made gradual gains against Taylor in the north and began approaching the capitalMonrovia by early 2002. TheMovement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), a second anti-Taylor rebel group, invaded southern Liberia in early 2003 and quickly conquered most of the south. Taylor, reduced to controlling only a third of Liberia and under pressure from theSiege of Monrovia, resigned in August 2003 and fled toNigeria. TheAccra Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed by the warring parties a week later, marking the political end of the conflict and beginning Liberia's transition to democracy. TheNational Transitional Government led by interim PresidentGyude Bryant governed the country until the2005 general election.
The Second Liberian Civil War resulted in the deaths of over 50,000 people and theinternal displacement of thousands more. The conflict saw the widespread use ofchild soldiers by both Taylor and LURD. TheUnited Nations Mission in Liberia was deployed in the country until it was officially withdrawn in 2018.
TheFirst Liberian Civil War ended in August 1997 whenCharles Taylor took power as thePresident of Liberia. Taylor had initiated the war when he and his militia, theNational Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), invaded the country from theIvory Coast to overthrow PresidentSamuel Doe in December 1989. The NPFL rapidly conquered most of Liberia except for the capitalMonrovia, which came under the control of theIndependent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a splinter group led byPrince Johnson. The INPFL captured and executed Doe in September 1990 and resisted attempts by the NPFL to take Monrovia, denying Taylor an outright victory and prolonging the war for years. Apeace agreement was signed in 1996 between the major factions and resulted in the1997 Liberian general election.
Taylor won alandslide victory with 75% of the vote for the presidency, while his National Patriotic Party dominated the Legislature of Liberia. His success was mainly due to his control over the media, fear that the war would restart if he lost, and a general unfamiliarity with democratic processes among the Liberian public. Taylor quickly established atotalitarian and corrupt regime, with many dissidents fleeing to neighboring countries. Taylor's ambition of establishing Liberia as aregional power led to him supporting rebel groups such as theRally of Democratic Forces of Guinea in theRFDG Insurgency and theRevolutionary United Front in theSierra Leone Civil War. This brought him into conflict with the governments ofGuinea andSierra Leone who, in retaliation, began supporting the anti-Taylor dissidents that had fled to their countries.
The second civil war began in April 1999, when Liberian dissidents under the banner of the Organization of Displaced Liberians invaded Liberia from Guinea.[7] Guinea became LURD's main source of military and financial support. By July 2000, the various dissident groups had coalesced as the LURD led bySekou Conneh. The dissidents were thought to be mostlyMandinka andKrahn fighters of the former ULIMO-J and ULIMO-K.[8]
Also important in forming LURD was an alliance, brokered by ECOMOG-SL Nigerian chief GeneralMaxwell Khobe, between Liberian dissidents and the Sierra LeoneanKamajors hunter militia, including chiefsSamuel Hinga Norman and Eddie Massally.[8] Against the dissidents Taylor deployed irregular ex-National Patriotic Front of Liberia fighters with his more privileged units, such as theAnti-Terrorist Unit, positioned to ensure the irregulars did fight.
Simultaneous September 2000 counter-attacks on Guinea from Liberia and Sierra Leone by RUF – still loyal to Taylor and Guinean dissidents – achieved initial success.[9] By January 2001, however, Taylor's forces were pushed back inside Sierra Leone and Liberia. The insurgents were posing a major threat to the Taylor government. Liberia was now engaged in a complex three-way conflict with Sierra Leone and the Guinea Republic.
By the beginning of 2002, both of these countries were supporting LURD, while Taylor was supporting various opposition factions in both countries. By supporting — practically creating — the SL rebels, theRevolutionary United Front (RUF), Taylor also drew the enmity of the British and Americans. British and U.S. pressure on Taylor increased with rising financial support for Guinea and U.S./U.K.-proposed sanctions, a weaker version of which were imposed by U.N. Security Council May 2001.
By mid-February 2002 LURD troops were just 44 kilometres from Monrovia, at Klay Junction, and Taylor was forced to declare a state of emergency.[10] The February 2002 ICG report says that this attack was made by pursuing ‘a strategy of infiltration of south-western Liberia through the thick bush of Southern Lofa, looping around government strongholds and disrupting supply lines... while LURD claims between 300 and 500 men were assigned to that mission, ... the number that actually attacked was likely closer to twenty.’ Any image of a large force gradually pushing toward Monrovia is mistaken; ‘hit and run’ raids, rather than a continuous advance, seem to have been the pattern.[11]
Through the first half of 2002 LURD mounted raids in Bomi, Bong, and Montserrado counties, hitting, in addition to Klay Junction,Gbarnga andTubmanburg, each time temporarily seizing control from government fighters.[11] In May, an attack onArthington, less than 20 kilometres from the capital, apparently prompted panic in Monrovia. The state of emergency was lifted in September 2002, after, the government claimed, the township ofBopolu had been retaken.[12]
In early 2003, a second rebel group, the Ivoirian-backedMovement for Democracy in Liberia (MODEL), emerged in the south, and by the summer of 2003, Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country. Despite some setbacks, by mid-2003 LURD controlled the northern third of the country and was threatening the capital. The capitalMonrovia was besieged by LURD, and that group's shelling of the city resulted in the deaths of many civilians. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes as a result of the conflict.
A new bout of fighting began in March 2003 after a relative lull and by early May, LURD and MODEL had gained control of nearly two-thirds of the country, and were threatening Monrovia. Regional and wider pressure led to the convening of a conference in Accra by the then Chair of theEconomic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), PresidentJohn Kufuor of Ghana, on 4 June 2003.
By July 2003 Monrovia appeared to be in danger of being occupied and devastated despite ongoing peace talks.[13] The U.S. establishedJoint Task Force Liberia, built around a U.S. navy amphibious group with the26th Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard, positioned off the West African coast.
In July 2003 the United States (US) sent a small number of troops to bolster security around the US embassy in Monrovia, which had come under attack duringOperation Shining Express. On 25 July 2003, theSouthern Europe Task Force atVicenza, Italy was designated the lead U.S. Army command for the operation.
On 29 July 2003, LURD declared a ceasefire.[14] ECOWAS sent two battalions of Nigerian peacekeepers to Liberia. The first Nigerian battalion detached from theUnited Nations Mission in Sierra Leone, and the second came from Nigeria itself.[15]
President Taylor resigned on 11 August 2003, ahead of theAccra Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which formed the negotiated end to the war, and was flown into exile in Nigeria. An arrest warrant for Taylor for war crimes committed by his RUF rebel allies inSierra Leone was later issued byInterpol but Nigeria refused to deport him for a time unless they receive a specific request from Liberia. Vice-PresidentMoses Blah replaced Taylor.
On 14 August, rebels lifted their siege of Monrovia and 200 United States Marines landed to support a West African peace force. Thousands of people danced and sang as American troops andECOMIL, the Nigerian-led West African forces, took over the port and bridges which had split the capital into government and rebel-held zones. An estimated 1,000 people had been killed in Monrovia between 18 July and 14 August.[16]
Moses Blah handed over power to the National Transitional Government of Liberia on 14 October 2003. However, the transitional government exercised no real authority in the country, 80% of which was controlled by the rebel groups. Riots in Monrovia left approximately 16 people dead, with sources claiming that former combatants were behind the violence.[17]
Both LURD and Charles Taylor made extensive use of children press ganged into military service as soldiers or ammunition porters. The use of child soldiers was prolific by both sides, regardless of prohibitions of the practice in theGeneva Convention. Observers fromHuman Rights Watch described a deadly and chaotic siege of Monrovia, with many very young fighters shooting "shiny toys" they had not been trained to use.[18]
Drugs made up an integral part of Liberian wartime culture. Child soldiers and other combatants were routinely addicted tococaine,khat, and other drugs as a means of control. Several warlords felt that cocaine made soldiers more effective in battle.[19]
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In November 1997, following the completion of the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in LiberiaUNOMIL on 30 September, the United Nations established theUnited Nations Peace-building Support Office in Liberia (UNOL), headed by a representative of the Secretary-General. That first United Nations post-conflict peace-building support office was tasked primarily with assisting the government in consolidating peace following the July 1997 multiparty elections.
On 11 September 2003, UN Secretary GeneralKofi Annan recommended deployment of the peacekeeping mission, theUnited Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), to maintain the peace agreement. TheUN Security Council approved the mission on 19 September inResolution 1509. Nigeria sent in peacekeepers as part of the interim ECOWAS force. UNMIL was made up of over 15,000 personnel, including both military and civilian troops.
The bulk of the personnel were armed military troops, but there were also civilian policemen, as well as political advisers and humanitarian aid workers. On 1 October, the first peacekeepers changed their berets and became a UN force, with many more troops earmarked. During three days of riots in Monrovia in October 2004, nearly 400 people were wounded and 15 killed. The UN slowly built up its forces in the country, with 5,500 projected to be in place by November 2003, and worked to disarm the various factions. However, instability in neighbouring countries, an incomplete disarmament process, and general discontent threatened Liberia's fragile peace.
A group ofLiberian women headed byLeymah Gbowee formed an organization called "Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace" and forced a meeting with President Charles Taylor, extracting a promise from him to attend peace talks in Ghana. A delegation of women organizednonviolence protests and continued to apply pressure on the warring factions during the peace process. They staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace, bringing about an agreement during the stalled peace talks.[20] Their creative non-violent protest allowed them to use the power within women and mothers of Liberia; tactics included a sex strike until their men chose to set aside weapons, and threatening to undress during a sit in outside the peace talks in Ghana.[21]
Working together, over 3,000Christian andMuslim women mobilized their efforts, and as a result, the women were able to achieve peace in Liberia after a 14-year civil war and helped bring to power the country's first female president.[22] The story is told in the 2008 documentary filmPray the Devil Back to Hell.[23]
Among the women leaders who helped end the civil war wasEllen Johnson Sirleaf, who would become the first modern elected female head of state in Africa when she waselected in 2005.[24] Her election was inspired by the powerful commitment of women who had seen the war perpetuated by men in their country and were unwilling to put a man back into that powerful role.[25] This was despite the fact that Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's role in triggering the war in the 1980s had hampered her presidential prospects in the 1990s. While theTruth and Reconciliation Commission had recommended that she be banned from participating in politics for 30 years, she was re-elected for a second term in 2011.[26]
In 2025, the Liberian government, under PresidentJoseph Boakai, issued an official apology to victims of the conflict.[27]
General:
In October 2002 the ONU panel of Expert reported that some 1,250–1,500 former RUF combatants continued to operate in élite Liberian military units, under the command of Liberian General Benjamin Yeaten, but with continuing loyalty to Bockarie.
