ABSTRACT
For
the purpose of clarity and understanding, this research work shall be divided
into five chapters. Chapter to introduction and background to the whole study.
This include the statement of problem, objectives of study, significance of
study, scope and limitation of study, sources of data and the organization of
study.
Chapter
two provides the literature review. Here, the concepts of conflict and conflict
resolution are extensively conceptualized and analyzed. Chapter three is the
research methodology and an. update on conflict in Africa as a whole.
Chapter
four is the analysis of conflict in Sierra Leone. This chapter examines the
intervention of ECOWAS in the crisis and the evaluation of this intervention
towards ensuring the resolution of the conflict.
Chapter
five is the 6onclusion and summary of the whole research work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGES
Title
Page
Certification
Dedication
Acknowledgement
Abstract
Table
of Contents
Chapter One: Introduction
Background
to the Study
Statement
of Problem
Objectives
of the Study
Significance
of Study
Scope
and Limitation of Study
Sources
of Data
Endnotes
Chapter Two: Literature Review
The
Theory of Conflict
Conflict
Management
Analysis
of Conflict Resolution
Endnotes
Chapter Three: Research Methodology
Genesis
of the Sierra Leonean Crisis
The
Immediate Causes of Sierra Leonean Conflict
The
Immediate Causes of Sierra Leonean Conflict
Endnotes
Chapter Four: Data Analysis
The
Intervention of ECOWAS in the Sierra Leonean Conflict
The
Lome Peace Agreement
Personal
Interview Questions and Responses
Tile
ECQWAS Intervention: An Appraisal
Endnotes
Chapter Five: Summary, Recommendation and Conclusion
Summary
Recommendation
and Conclusion
Bibliography:
Primary Source
Bibliography:
Secondary Source
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background
to the Study
The nature of international relations
is such that is characterized with struggle or competition among international
actors who are driven and guided by their personal interest. This however,
results in conflict to which several measures, institutional; organizational
and personal, have been put in place to address.
Conflict is one the most important phenomenon
in international relations and it is a subject of great concern to
international relations scholars and experts. Scholars in international
relations have been preoccupied for years with trying to understand the causes
of conflict in the international system, particularly its rampant and attendant
problem in the sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is generally assumed or accepted
that unless the causes of conflict are known, the solution may be farfetched.
In most cases, conflict in. international system is a means for achieving a
particular end, it is an instrument which can be used for different purposes
which could either be good or bad, most of the time in international system,
conflict could end in uplifting a people and right the wrongs of the past while
creating a new social order that would enable the people involved to live
happily.
On the other hand, conflict could be
used for adverse purposes, it could be used to deprive others of their right
and it could be used to create misery and devastation of great proportion.
Nonetheless, conflict has become part and parcel of human existence,
particularly, human's social characteristics.
The rate at which Africa has become
engulfed in conflicts in the last one and half decades seems to be worrisome,
not only to Africans, but also to the international community. Since the mid-1980s,
countries in Africa have been battling and struggling with one another over several
issues in conflicts to the extent that it monopolized the attention of the international
community on the continent searching for solutions to these conflicts. The
nature of these conflicts ranges from border/territorial disputes,
cultural/historical differences, and wars of liberation and independence struggles
and lately internal civil strives of different dimensions. Although, it may be
argued that, conflict is not a new phenomenon in Africa however, the last
twenty years have seen a disturbing rate in armed conflicts.
From the great Lakes region, to the
Horn of Africa to West Africa, there are serious conflicts raging. Countries
like Sudan, Somalia, and the Republic of the Congo, Cote D'Ivoire, and Burundi
are still engaged in war, while Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, and Ethiopia are
in the immediate post war phase, with a fragile and compromised peace process.
Whereas, in other countries, like Zimbabwe and Nigeria, the threat of peace
reigning in the most .populous country in West Africa, signifies that the
region is in serious conflict situation and requires collective efforts in
finding lasting solutions to these conflicts.
The changing nature of these conflicts
from inter-state conflict to intra-state conflicts seems to be adapting (though
negatively) to the changing nature of the international political system. As a
matter of fact, the era of inter-state conflicts in Africa were not as controversial
and worrisome as the current intra-state conflicts. This has left millions of
people dead (with hundreds of thousands of them slaughtered) and over 9.5
millions of people as refugees in different parts of the continent. If this
scale of destruction and fighting were in Europe, it would be termed World War
III with the entire World rushing to report, provide aid, mediate and otherwise
try to diffuse the situations.
The prevalence of wars and conflicts in
Africa makes the issues of management and resolution arduous challenges on the
continent. The United Nations, African Union and ECOWAS are engaged in
peacekeeping projects in Africa. In the 1994s, Africa was a recipient of over
sixty per cent of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in the World, with
many of these efforts concentrated in West Africa. A large chunk of the efforts
and resources of ECOWAS are being consumed in peacekeeping and peace support
operations, including sending observer missions to conflict areas. This has
continued up till the present time.
The Sierra Leonean crisis was another
serious crisis that challenged the corporate existence of Africa as a continent
in general and West Africa in particular. The inhuman treatment that
characterized the Sierra Leonean crisis made it a worse scenario in the
sub-region. Tracing the genesis of the crisis may not be useful here but we
need to acknowledge that the conflict that broke out in Sierra Leone in 1991
had remote causes. There was high degree of political instability in the
country resulting from different military coups and counter coups. Since 1961
when Sierra Leone became independent, attempt to have smooth process of
succession had eluded the country just like any other country in the continent.
The failure to have a free and fair election during the parliamentary elections
of 1967 resulted in serious crisis in the country and the subsequent military
coup in the country. By 1968, this military regime was overthrown by Siaka
Stevens through a civilian uprising. Stevens manipulated the constitution of
the country to arrogate power to himself and ensure that his opponents were
dealt with. In ensuring this, he proscribed the United Democratic Party (UDP)
and jailed its officers. The Military Force Commander in the country, John
Bangura, was also arrested with other officers believed to be unloyal to his
administration. These officers were rounded up, accused of a coup plot and were
subsequently executed. In this same manner, a relative of John Bangura, Foday
Sankoh, who was a Corporal in the Army and a photographer was also implicated
in the coup plot and was jailed in 1971.
Sierra Leone, like any other African
country, has about seventeen ethnic groups with two of them standing out as the
largest groups. The Temne occupies large sections of the northern region, and
the Mende dominates the South and Eastern part of the country. Together, Mende
and Temne account for roughly 60 percent of the country's population. The Temne
and Mende have been dominant players in the political life of Sierra Leone
before and since independence and political leaders from both groups have often
appealed to their kith and kin for support. Other important ethnic groups are
Krio, who inhabit the Western area; the Limba, sometimes dominant in All
People's Congress, and the Koko, whose homeland in the far east of Sierra Leone
is rich in diamonds. Factionalization and ethnicity dominated the political
scene in the country soon after the independence. This also played out in the
composition of the military and the police thus destroying the small, well
trained and professional military inherited from the British after the
independence.
The outbreak of the civil war in Sierra
Leone started with the taking over of government by Joseph Momoh from Siaka
Stevens from the same All People's Congress (APC). There was wide belief that
the newly introduced APC government of Momoh will right the wrongs committed by
Stevens APC but instead, it became business as usual. Under the regime of Momoh, Sierra Leone started to have its problem with Liberia with whom its
shares border. In his search for a staging post to invade Liberia, Charles
Taylor visited Sierra Leone in 1989, reportedly contacted and gave money to
senior members in the Momoh's APC government as incentive for granting him
permission to operate from Sierra Leone soil.
However, this became impossible as
ECOMOG chose to use Sierra Leone as its base to intervene in the Liberia's
civil war. This did not go down well with Charles Taylor, who was jailed
briefly in Sierra Leone while trying to force his will on the Sierra Leonean government
headed by Momoh. Consequently, Charles Taylor assisted Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary
United front (RUF), the main rebel force that began fighting the Sierra Leonean
Government in early 1991. With Taylor's backing, a small band of RUF rebels, invaded
eastern Sierra Leone from Liberia in March 199.1 and launched a campaign to overthrow
the All People's Congress Party of Sierra Leone, which had ruled the country
for 24 years. Unfortunately, President Momoh's response to the initial
insurgency was both ineffective and unpopular with the Sierra Leone Army (SLA).
Momoh's government failed to equip the
troops with adequate logistic support neither: does it considers negotiating
with the rebels. It is important to note that Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary
United Front invaded Sierra Leone from territory controlled by the NPFL. Also,
the RUF forces initially contained a lot of mercenaries provided by Charles
Taylor. Apart from this, it must be pointed out that Taylor had other reasons
for supporting the RUF. He wanted unlimited access to the rich agricultural and
diamondiferous lands in Southern Sierra Leone, in order to pay for his
elaborate war machine in Liberia. However, the rebels did not succeed in gaining power until
1997, after six years of civil war and three military coups. By April 1992, a
group of junior SLA officers overthrew Momoh's government and a 27 years old
Captain Valentine Strasser became the Chairman of the National Provisional
Ruling Council (NPRC). With Strasser in power, it became evident that no regime
could basically and fundamentally resolve the problem of the country.
Therefore, Strasser turned to others for security assistance, including Nigeria
as well as the Kamajors, a Sierra Leonean militia. Also, the civil populace
resulted to traditional institutions to protect civilians against the deadly ‘messiahs',
the uneducated and undisciplined government troops on the one hand and the
unspeakably cruel and merciless RUF on the other hand). It was under this
tension that in January 1996, the Chief of Defence Staff in Strasser's regime,
Brigadier-General Julius Maada Bio, took over the reign of government. In what
looked like the choice of the people, Bio organized election as stipulated to
hold in February 1996 and Ahmed Teejan Kabbah became the elected President of
Sierra Leone. One year after the election of Teejan Kabbah as the President of
Sierra Leone, the nation was still at war. The situation was getting even worse
with the war getting ever more savaged. Although Kabbah may have had democratic
legitimacy, he had little power. His position was further weakened after the
Executive outcome withdrew in January 1997. Therefore, by May 1997, Major
Johnny Paul Koroma chased the government of President Kabbah out of the country
under the guise of Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRO). The AFRC joined
alliances with the RUF and members of the rebel group were appointed to senior
positions in the new government. The Koroma coup coincided with the
Organization of African Unity (OAU) reign ministers' Summit in Harare. The
Summit strongly condemned the coup. The then OAU Chairman, President Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe expressed support for what he termed the ‘noble mission' of ECOWAS
in Sierra Leone.
Statement
of Problem
While it may be argued that conflict is
part of the social process in any part of the world, its resolution should not
be overwhelming that lives and properties are lost in magnitude without
consideration for its devastating effects. It is not out of place to embark on
conflict for social change, but where it becomes impossible to resolve conflict
amicably among people of the same historical background, it goes a long way to
tell the weakening nature of the state and its institutions.
It is important to note that the
struggle to resolve the enormous conflict situation in West Africa has deprived
the sub-region of certain developmental progress with enormous resources, both
human and material lost in the process. Therefore, it is imperative to
understand the nature of conflict in West Africa which makes it so much
difficult to tackle.
Apart From this, the cause(s) of these conflicts
in West Africa should be understood in order to be able to proffer adequate
mechanism to resolve the conflicts.
Objectives
of the Study
The main aim of this research work is
to understand the causes of conflicts in West. Africa in order to understand
why it is difficult for the sub-region to find lasting solution to these
conflicts. However, the specific objectives include the following:
·
To
examine the nature of conflict in West Africa
·
To
examine the various mechanisms put in place by ECOWAS to resolve the conflicts
in West Africa with greater emphasis on the Sierra Leone crisis.
·
To
highlight the various challenges confronting ECOWAS in its bid to find lasting
solution to the conflict situation in the sub-region.
Significance
of Study
The study will help in enlightening the
public, particularly students of conflict and peace studies, to have a broader
understanding of the causes of conflict in West Africa.
The study will help decision makers to
understand the rationale behind the -nature of conflict in West Africa and as a
result be able to facilitate the necessary mechanism towards resolving these
conflicts.
The study will add to the existing
literature on the subject of conflict and conflict resolution.
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
The research will be written with
materials obtained from secondary sources. Thus, textbooks, monographs,
journals, newspapers and magazines will be given prominence in this work.
Scope
and Limitation of Study
This study examines the causes of conflict
in sub-Saharan Africa as a whole with emphasis on West Africa. This is because
the nature of conflict in Africa and West Africa has shown that the region and
the sub-region are the most affected in the whole process of conflict
resolution in the world. However, the study focus on ECOMOG experience in
Sierra Leone.
The study is limited by the inability
to access classified documents and heavy reliance on secondary sources.
Sources
of Data
The sources of data for this research mainly
Secondary sources. This means that information gathering from the use of
published textbooks, journals, monographs, mimeographs, newspapers, magazines
and bulletins.
The library of Lagos State University,
the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs shall be extensively used in
this regard.
Click “DOWNLOAD NOW” below to get the complete Projects
FOR QUICK HELP CHAT WITH US NOW!
+(234) 0814 780 1594
Login To Comment