Sierra Leone

Civitas Maxima’s work in Sierra Leone.

Between March 1991 and January 2002, Sierra Leone experienced an armed conflict in which the civilian population was specifically targeted and subjected to acts of extreme cruelty, including instances of massacre, mutilations, amputations, gang rape, forced enrolment of child soldiers, forced labour and pillage. At least 70.000 people were killed, and 2.6 million people were displaced, i.e., nearly a third of the population.

The conflict was initiated by rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), movement led by Foday Sankoh, and supported by Charles Taylor – leader of the rebel movement National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) who, in 1997, became President of Liberia. Over the war, the RUF fought to control territories located mostly in the eastern and southern parts of Sierra Leone, rich in diamonds, to secure a continuous flow in diamond extraction to finance the war. The control of such territories allowed the RUF to engage with international business partners to sell diamonds in exchange for arms and ammunitions, money, and other supplies. To this aim, the RUF enslaved the local population and forced them to work in the mining pits, often subjecting them to killings, torture and other inhuman treatment.

Diamonds, mined both legally by the government and illegally by rebel RUF forces, infamous for their forced recruitment of child soldiers and maiming of civilians. Photo by Chris Hondros

Several attempts, led or endorsed by the international community (the Abidjan Peace Agreement in 1996, the establishment of ECOMOG force by ECOWAS in 1997, or the Lomé Peace Agreement and the establishment of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in 1999) failed to end the war. Other armed groups emerged: the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) fighting against the government, or the Civil Defense Forces (CDF) subsequently being created to repeal the attacks of the AFRC and the RUF.

In November 2000, the Abuja Ceasefire Agreement, was signed by the government of Sierra Leone and the RUF, concluding the official cessation of hostilities between the RUF and pro-government militias, CDF included. Nevertheless, the RUF did not disarmed immediately, and mining activity in RUF-controlled areas continued. In January 2002, a symbolic ceremony was organized to officially mark the end of the war in Sierra Leone.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) and other accountability efforts

 In January 2002, the government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations signed the agreement for the establishment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL). The Court was entrusted to investigate and prosecute those who bore the greatest responsibility for serious violations of international humanitarian law and Sierra Leonean law. The SCSL was responsible for prosecuting major actors of the war from the RUF, the AFRC, the CDF, as well as former Liberian President Charles Taylor. The court operated from 2002 until December 2013, after which, the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone was established.

Also in 2002, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) for Sierra Leone, foreseen in the Lomé Peace Agreement of 1999, was established, as an alternative accountability mechanism conditioned by a general amnesty. The Commission operated up until 2004, concluding its work with a final report.

Accountability efforts in Sierra Leone have not reached so far Western businesspersons who engaged with the RUF in illegal activities to supporting their arm struggle and fuelling the war. There have been, however, cases against some of them in national jurisdictions related to national crimes.