Socio-Economic Injustice and Cronyism: Warlordism and Taylorism in the Sierra Leone Civil War

Abstract

The Sierra Leone civil war (1991-2002) was the most ruthless in the history of the West African civil conflicts that erupted after the end of the Cold War. This is because the combatants did not follow international humanitarian law (IHL). The war added new erminologies to the atrocities of war and the killing of innocent civilians using under aged as child soldiers contrary to the fact that this group has legal protection under many international conventions. The Sierra Leone civil war that started on 23 March 1991 was a deep reflection of the beginning of the geographic spillover of instability in the West African sub-region. Although the proximate endogenous factors are intrinsically linked to issues of maladministration and state patrimonialism and neopatrimonialism that resulted in utter poverty, the external dimensions are linked to the snowballing effects of the first Liberian civil war, (1989-1996) orchestrated by Charles Taylor.