Charles Taylor's force attacks (1989) Charles Taylor organized and trained indigenous northerners in
Ivory Coast. During Doe's regime, Taylor served in the Liberian Government's General Services Agency, acting 'as its
de facto director'. In 1983, he fled to the United States amid what Stephan Ellis describes as the 'increasingly menacing atmosphere in Monrovia' shortly before
Thomas Quiwonkpa, Doe's chief lieutenant, fled into exile. Doe requested Taylor's extradition for embezzling $900,000 of Liberian government funds. Taylor was thus arrested in the United States and after sixteen months broke out of a Massachusetts jail in circumstances that are still unclear.
Ethnic conflict and siege of Monrovia Charles Taylor's NPFL forces initially encountered plenty of support within
Nimba County, which had endured the majority of Samuel Doe's wrath after the 1985 attempted coup. Thousands of ethnic Gio and Mano joined when Taylor and his force of 100 rebels reentered Liberia in 1989, on Christmas Eve. Doe responded by sending two AFL battalions, including the 1st Infantry Battalion, to Nimba in December 1989 – January 1990, under then-Colonel Hezekiah Bowen. The AFL acted in a very brutal and scorched-earth fashion, which quickly alienated the local people. The rebel assault soon pitted
ethnic Krahn sympathetic to the Doe regime against those victimized by it, the
Gio and the Mano. Thousands of civilians were massacred on both sides. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes. The
Monrovia Church massacre was carried out by approximately 30 ethnic Krahn government soldiers, killing 600 civilians in St. Peter's Lutheran Church, Monrovia, on 29 July 1990, the worst single atrocity of the First Liberian Civil War. By May 1990, the AFL had been forced back to
Gbarnga, still under the control of Bowen's troops. On 28 May, the Liberian army lost the town to a NPFL assault. By June 1990, Taylor's forces were laying siege to Monrovia. In July 1990,
Prince Yormie Johnson split from Taylor and formed the Independent National Patriotic Front (INPFL). The INPFL and NPFL continued their siege on Monrovia, which the AFL defended. In their
Freedom in the World report for 1990,
Freedom House described Monrovia in July as "a virtual ghost town of starving people and rotting corpses" as the rebel advance on the city caused widespread panic and anarchy, leading to Liberian soldiers looting shops and killing civilians at random, all while hunger and disease quickly took hold. Johnson swiftly took control of parts of Monrovia, prompting the evacuation of foreign nationals and diplomats
by the US Navy in August.
ECOWAS intervention force (August 1990) In August 1990, the 16-member
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed to deploy a joint military intervention force, the Economic Community Monitoring Group (
ECOMOG), and placed it under
Nigerian leadership. The mission later included troops from non-ECOWAS countries, including Uganda and Tanzania. ECOMOG's objectives were to impose a cease-fire; help Liberians establish an interim government until elections could be held; stop the killing of innocent civilians; and ensure the safe evacuation of foreign nationals. ECOMOG also sought to prevent the conflict from spreading into neighboring states, which share a complex history of state, economic, and ethno-linguistic social relations with Liberia. The
Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) attempted to persuade Doe to resign and go into exile, but despite his weak position – besieged in his mansion – he refused. On August 24, 1990,
ECOMOG, an ECOWAS intervention force, arrived at the Freeport of Monrovia, landing from Nigerian and Ghanaian vessels.
Capture and killing of Samuel Doe (September 1990) On 9 September 1990, Doe visited the newly established ECOMOG headquarters in the Free Port of Maher. According to Stephen Ellis, his motive was to complain that the ECOMOG commander had not paid a courtesy call to him as the Head of State; however, the exact circumstances that led to Doe's visit to the Free Port are still unclear. Doe had been under pressure to accept exile outside of Liberia. After Doe arrived, a large rebel force led by Prince Johnson's INPFL arrived and attacked Doe's party. Doe was captured and taken to the INPFL's Caldwell base. He was brutally tortured before being killed and dismembered. His torture and execution was videotaped by his captors. Johnson's INPFL and Taylor's NPFL continued to struggle for control of Monrovia in the months that followed. With military discipline absent and bloodshed throughout the capital region, members of ECOWAS created the Economic Community Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to restore order. The force comprised some 4,000 troops from
Nigeria,
Ghana,
Sierra Leone, the
Gambia and
Guinea. ECOMOG succeeded in bringing Taylor and Johnson to agree to its intervention. Taylor's forces later fought against ECOMOG in the port area of Monrovia.
Peacemaking attempts (1990) A series of peacemaking conferences in regional capitals followed. There were meetings in Bamako in November 1990, Lomé in January 1991, and Yamoussoukro in June–October 1991. The first seven peace conferences failed, including the Yamoussoukro I-IV processes. In November 1990, ECOWAS invited the principal Liberian players to meet in
Banjul, Gambia to form a government of national unity. The negotiated settlement established the Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU), led by
Dr. Amos Sawyer, leader of the LPP. Bishop Ronald Diggs of the Liberian Council of Churches became vice president. Taylor's NPFL refused to attend the conference. Within days, hostilities resumed. ECOMOG was reinforced in order to protect the interim government. Sawyer was able to establish his authority over most of Monrovia, but the rest of Liberia was in the hands of factions of the NPFL, or local gangs.
ULIMO In June 1991, the
United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) was formed by supporters of the late
President Samuel K. Doe and former
Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) fighters who had taken refuge in
Guinea and
Sierra Leone. It was led by Raleigh Seekie, a deputy
Minister of Finance in the Doe government. In September 1991, after fighting alongside the Sierra Leonean army against the Sierra Leonean
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels, ULIMO forces entered western Liberia. The group scored significant gains in areas held by another rebel group – Taylor's
National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL), notably around the diamond mining areas of
Lofa and
Bomi counties. From its outset, ULIMO was beset with internal divisions. In 1994, the group effectively broke into two separate militias: The
ULIMO-J, an ethnic
Krahn faction led by General
Roosevelt Johnson; and the
ULIMO-K, a
Mandingo-based faction led by
Alhaji G.V. Kromah. ULIMO was alleged to have committed serious violations of
human rights, both before and after its breakup.
Attack on Monrovia (1992) Peace was still far off as both Taylor and Johnson claimed power. ECOMOG declared an Interim Government of National Unity (IGNU) with
Amos Sawyer as their president, with the broad support of Johnson. On October 15, 1992, Taylor launched an assault on Monrovia, named 'Operation Octopus' which may have been led by Burkina Faso soldiers. The resulting siege lasted two months. By late December 1992, ECOMOG had pushed the NPFL back beyond Monrovia's suburbs.
UNOMIL In 1993, ECOWAS brokered a peace agreement in
Cotonou, Benin. On September 22, 1993, the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council established the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), to support ECOMOG in implementing this peace agreement. In early 1994, UNOMIL was deployed, with 368 military observers and civilian personnel to monitor the implementation of the Cotonou Peace Agreement, prior to elections originally planned for February/March 1994. In May 1994, renewed armed hostilities broke out and continued, becoming especially intense in July and August. ECOMOG, and later UNOMIL, members were captured and held hostage by some factions. By mid-1994, the humanitarian situation had become disastrous, with 1.8 million Liberians in need of humanitarian assistance. Conditions continued to deteriorate. Humanitarian agencies were unable to reach many in need due to the hostilities and general insecurity. In September 1994, factional leaders agreed to the Akosombo Agreement, a supplement to the Cotonou agreement, named after the Benin city where it was signed. The security situation in Liberia remained poor. In October 1994, in the face of ECOMOG funding shortfalls and a lack of will by the Liberian combatants to honor the agreements to end the war, the UN Security Council reduced the number of UNOMIL observers to about 90. The UN extended UNOMIL's mandate and subsequently extended it several times until September 1997. In December 1994, the factions and other parties signed the Accra Agreement, a supplement to the Akosombo Agreement. Disagreements ensued, and fighting continued.
Ceasefire (1995) In August 1995, the main factions signed an agreement largely brokered by Ghanaian President
Jerry Rawlings. At a conference sponsored by ECOWAS, the United Nations and the United States, the European Union, and the
Organization of African Unity, Charles Taylor agreed to a cease-fire. At the beginning of September 1995, Liberia's three principal warlords – Taylor,
George Boley and
Alhaji Kromah – made theatrical entrances into Monrovia. A ruling council of six members under civilian
Wilton G. S. Sankawulo and with the three factional heads Taylor, Kromah and Boley, took control of Liberia, in preparation for elections that were originally scheduled for 1996.
Fighting in Monrovia (1996) fighters search for
ULIMO militants in
Monrovia, 1996 In April 1996, heavy fighting broke out again. This led to the evacuation of most international non-governmental organizations and the destruction of much of Monrovia. The U.S. military's
Operation Assured Response evacuated 485 Americans and over 2,400 citizens from 68 countries. In August 1996, fighting stopped after the
Abuja Accord in Nigeria, agreeing to
disarmament and
demobilization by 1997 and
elections in July 1997. In September 1996, Sankawulo was followed by
Ruth Perry as the chairwoman of the ruling council, who served until August 1997.
1997 Elections In July 1997, simultaneous elections for
the presidency and
national assembly were held. In a climate hardly conducive to free movement and security of persons, Taylor and his
National Patriotic Party won an overwhelming victory against 12 candidates. Assisted by widespread intimidation, Taylor took 75 per cent of the presidential poll. No other candidate won more than 10 per cent. The NPP won a similar proportion of seats in both parliamentary chambers. On 2 August 1997, Ruth Perry handed power to the elected president Charles Taylor. ==Aftermath==