Sierra Leone Conflict

In the case of Sierra Leone, the war was prolonged primarily by greed with regards to the diamond resource (mis)management. After a “golden era” of democracy and good governance in 1961 with Sir Milton Margai as first Prime Minister, the politics of mismanagement started in 1964 when his brother Albert took over power (Iro, 2009; Hirsch, 2001). He regarded the state as an instrument for personal power and this way of thinking prevailed in Sierra Leone, dominating the mind-set of the political elite until the outburst of conflict in 1991 (Iro, 2009). Andrea Iro (2009) argues that the armed conflict did not erupt “accidentally”, but “was generated by more than two decades of bad governance that led to the corruption and, finally, the total collapse of the Sierra Leonean State”. When Prime Minister Siaka Steven and his APC party came into power in 1967, the country was dominated by a single-party dictatorship which created an environment of bad governance (Ayissi & Poulton, 2000). Worse still, they instituted a highly centralized, inefficient, and corrupt bureaucratic system of government, marginalizing the people and robbing them of their rights and freedoms (Reno, 2002).
In fact, Sierra Leone …show more content…
Diamond resources served as an attractive medium of exchange for arms. The RUF used diamonds in return for arms from government soldiers or neighboring countries like Liberia or Guinea (Adebajo, 2002; Reno, 2003; Alao, 1999). Taylor exploited diamonds to fund his military activities in Liberia. Mercenaries from Liberia or Burkina Faso were equally active in mining and trading diamonds. The diamond mining industry became a convenient source of income for national soldiers collaborating with the RUF who were suffering from low state salaries (Le Billion, 2013). Finally, the government forces themselves were selling diamonds to Guinean merchants in return for weapons (Campell,