SUMMARY

[Note to reader: this Country page primarily contains brief information about state-based violence during the period 1946–1974, and to some extent 1975–1988. For more detailed information on organized violence after 1989, please consult the specific Conflict and Dyad pages available on the left-hand side of this page. These pages contain more detailed information regarding all three categories of organized violence in this country from 1989 and onwards (when applicable), as well as detailed information about state-based violence 1975–1988. The left-hand side menu also contains links to Actor pages for all groups involved in organized violence since 1989 in this country, as well as actors involved in state-based violence 1975–1988.]

The Republic of Sierra Leone became independent from the British in 1961. The capital Freetown was founded in 1787, as a place of refuge for freed slaves from the Americas. During colonial rule the British had applied their most common mode of administration, using indigenous structures of power and governance to employ an ‘indirect rule’ giving rise to powerful patterns of patrimonialism. These patterns continued to be present when Sierra Leone reached independence. The years following on independence were marked by one-party rule, nepotism and economic decline, creating a setting of widely held grievances amongst the population.

Sierra Leone was struck by intrastate armed conflict in 1991, when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) invaded and attacked the government in an attempt to take power. The RUF was later joined by the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (formed in 1997) and this alliance briefly took government power in 1997. The armed conflict lasted until 2000, and also involved the Kamajors militias, which battled the RUF/AFRC alliance government in 1997–1998.

During this intrastate conflict both the government of Sierra Leone and the RUF carried out one-sided violence against civilians.

Sierra Leone also took part as a secondary warring party on the side of the government of Kuwait and its allies against Iraq in 1991.

Since 1946 Sierra Leone has experienced the intrastate and one-sided categories of UCDP organized violence.