SUMMARY
The conflict between ULIMO-J (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (Roosevelt Johnson faction)) and ULIMO-K (United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (Alhaji Kromah faction)) originates from an internal dispute within ULIMO (United Liberation Movement of Liberia). The original ULIMO group was made up of mainly two ethnicities, the Krahn, and the Mandingo. The dual ethnicities were represented in the top brass of the organization. Alhaji Kromah, of Mandingo ethnicity, was the head of the organization, while Roosevelt Johnson, of Krahn ethnicity, was the field commander. The issue that brought the leadership question to the fore was the establishment of a transitional government, a government in which ULIMO was represented by two seats. The Transitional government was part of the Cotonou peace agreement (for more information, see the UCDP Dataset Download Center), which stipulated that each warring faction was to be represented in the temporary government. The filling of the two seats proved to be a sensitive issue; the visions for ULIMO’s political aspirations, apparently, differed. Although UN officials saw Kromah as the leader of ULIMO, and there were indeed two Kromah appointees present at the first session of the Transitional Government, there were still doubts amongst the ranks as to where the leadership was in fact concentrated.
The tensions created by the uncertainty surrounding the leadership, and the fact that the rivaling individuals were of different ethnicities proved to be too intense. In March 1994 ULIMO men clashed, divided along ethnic lines, Mandingo against Krahn. The intense fighting continued until June, and saw scores of civilian casualties. The tactics used were mainly street clashes between the rivaling factions, but there were also reports of mortars and grenade launchers being used in the fighting. The clashes that followed the leadership rivalry were the end of ULIMO as a unified organization, since the differences were too immense to fit under the same organizational context. Following the four months of fighting two separate ULIMO factions were identified, led by Johnson and Kromah respectively. The split had been in effect since at least some time during 1993, but it was not until March 1994 that the issue was highlighted and the distinctive groups were recognized. The ethnic divide, Mandingo/Krahn was a factor that enabled indiscriminate targeting of members of the other ethnicity. As the context of the Liberian conflict was very confusing and violence along ethnic lines was commonplace this was not a unique factor concerning these specific actors.
The fighting in this conflict was confined to the western parts of the country. ULIMO had its stronghold in the cities of Tubmanburg, and Klay in Bomi district. Subsequently the majority of the recorded events in this conflict took place within Bomi district. The violence did also on a few occasions spill over to Liberia’s western neighbor Sierra Leone.
The non-state conflict between ULIMO-J and ULIMO-K is first included in UCDP data in 1994. In early March that year, clashes between the two groups resulted in over 25 battle-related deaths.
