Background to the Liberia and Sierra Leone implosions

Liberia and Sierra Leone are tragic examples of what happens when central authority collapses and warlords emerge as de-facto rulers over large portions of the national territory. Horrors inflicted on non-combatants and the well publicized trading in ‘conflict diamonds’ served to focus world attention on these two small countries sharing a common border. Both countries have experienced mixed success with outside military intervention for peace keeping and nation building purposes. What has happened is all the more distressing when one considers each country’s prospects at birth under the political and economic aegis of arguably two of the most powerful and enlightened countries of the time, Great Britain in the case of Sierra Leone and the United States in Liberia.