Research on the Sierra Leone Civil War

Before now, I have never heard of the Sierra Leone Civil War or even knew what it may have been about.  I have heard of Sierra Leone and I know that it is in Africa and has a large diamond export.  Before reading any research on the civil war itself, I am willing to venture a guess that the civil war is about diamonds since so many conflict in Africa revolve around diamond mining.  After searching for about five minutes for articles about the civil war, I came across a few that mentioned that there were “large swathes of territory in eastern and southern Sierra Leone, which were rich in alluvial diamonds”.  After doing some more reading, I realized that I have heard about this conflict, mainly through movies.  Saying that, I take most of what I see in movies with a grain of salt.  The movie I saw was Blood Diamond with Leo Dicaprio.  If anything else, the movie had a very surreal view of how wars were fought in these 3rd world countries.

One aspect that really stood out to me is that this war lasted 11 years.  I think about how long the American war in the Middle East has lasted, and it is over 10 years also.  The American War is being fought halfway around the world, which makes it easy to forget once you come back.  It is another world when you go and when you come back.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to be in the actual war zone for the entirety of the war.  Especially the residence of Freetown.  From my readings, it seemed like this town took a brunt of the fighting and never got a break from the war.  After each attack and new governments, Freetown would get plundered and its residents would be raped.  It must have been a huge relief when the British finally came and took control of Freetown, ending the civil war for good.  I found it interesting that Sierra Leone was once part of the British Commonwealth but was eventually given back to the people as many of Britain’s satellite states did over time.  I wanted to know why Britain decided to intervene in its former colonies war.  At first I thought that they may have felt responsible in some way and they were the only ones willing to move in and stop the violence.  I could not find much on this subject, but I think that it is mainly because the British felt that they had a part to play in Sierra Leone’s growth as a country since they recently released it from the Commonwealth.  It definitely took them along time to get involved, 11 years is a long time.

Another aspect of this civil war that I found interesting is something that I have noticed as a reoccurring theme throughout a few wars or conflicts in the recent past.  With Ukraine, Sierra Leone, and Sudan, the UN has completely failed at trying to make peace.  I feel that there is a trend growing.  Once the UN fails, the wars just seem to keep on going without any outside help.  I don’t know if it is anything new, but it seems that when the UN fails, it totally backs out like their only plan was peace talks.  Sierra Leone is the exception because Britain finally got involved and forcefully resolved the conflict.  Go Britain!