AN INTRODUCTION INTO THE LIBERIAN CIVIL WAR

The Liberian civil war began with former Liberian politician and president, Charles Taylor, photographed on the left in Figure 1. Taylor began working under the administration of Master Sergeant Samuel Doe shortly after he led Liberia’s first successful coup d’état in 1980, in which the president at the time, William Tolbert, was assassinated along with some ministers of his government. Only a few years later was Samuel Doe to become the next president of Liberia (Hurst, 2009). Whilst working as a part of Doe’s team, Taylor was given the position to run the General Services Agency, a role that required him to handle most of Liberia’s budget, and whilst in the position he had a disagreement with President Doe, as Doe accused him of stealing almost $1 million from the Liberian government (Charles Taylor: Preacher, 2013).

After fleeing to the United States to escape the Liberian government in 1983, Taylor was arrested a year later in Boston for his crimes. The following year Taylor managed to escape from prison and seek asylum in Libya, where he formed the militia group, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (Charles Taylor Fast Facts, 2021). On December 24th, 1989, Taylor led a group of Libyan trained rebels and launched a rebellion by invading Liberia from Ivory Coast, to overthrow President Samuel Doe’s administration (Momodu, 2016). This ultimately triggered the beginning of the first Liberian Civil War.

The Liberian Civil War consisted of two wars spanning over 14 years from 1989 to 2003 (Dahir, 2018), where it is estimated that over 200,000 civilians lost their lives, and around a million Liberians had to flee to refugee camps in neighbouring countries (Momodu, 2016). Charles Taylor carrying injured follower, Liberia, August 1990