By July, even as peace talks were taking place in Accra, LURD forces reached the outskirts of Monrovia and began a siege of the capital. In the subsequent shelling of the city, over one thousand civilians were killed and thousands more were made homeless. As it became increasingly apparent that his government would not survive the siege, on August 11, , President Charles Taylor resigned and flew to exile in Nigeria.
In that election, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the twenty-fourth president of Liberia and the first woman to head an African nation. Sirleaf continues to hold the office of president, and over a decade after the Accra Comprehensive Peace Agreement was worked out, Liberia remains at peace. Other groups include the ancestors of the Black Americo-Liberians who migrated from America and founded Liberia between and and other Black immigrants from neighboring countries of West Africa.
Under its constitution adopted in January , a president, who is freely elected to a six-year term, serves as the head of state and commander in chief of the military. Members of the legislative two-chamber National Assembly are elected to six-year terms in the House of Representatives and nine-year terms in the Senate. Similar to the hierarchical power structure of federalism in the United States, Liberia is divided into 15 counties, each headed by a presidentially appointed superintendent.
After being legalized in , political parties multiplied rapidly. As highlighted by the election of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president in , women play a prominent role in Liberian politics and government. Several women have also served in the presidential cabinet and as Supreme Court justices. The Liberian judicial system is overseen by a Supreme Court, with a lower court system comprised of courts of appeals, criminal courts, and local magistrate courts.
To the extent possible the indigenous ethnic groups are allowed to govern themselves according to their traditional laws. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights.
Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Taylor, however, refused to work with this government and continued fighting. The fighting between these various factions continued and generated more civilian casualties. The siege of the capital lasted for two months and trapped ECOWAS troops who were unable to gain an advantage in this ongoing civil war. When the Taylor rebels entered Nimba County, their home, the conflict quickly drew in the Mandingoes, who are mostly Muslims.
The Gio tribe soon formed their own separate rebel forces under Prince Johnson, and a bloody three-way civil war began. The County leaders rapidly mobilized young men to join the rebel forces believing that Taylor was sincere when he said the sole purpose of his attack was to remove the tyrant, Samuel K.
Doe from power. As the fighting escalated into civil war, three distinct factions became engaged in a national power-struggle: forces loyal to Doe, and two mutually opposed rebel groups led by Charles Taylor and Prince Yormie Johnson.
Tribal affiliations played a key role in the split between the Krahn, to which Doe and most of his adherents belonged, and the Gio and Mano people, who formed the bulk of the rebel forces. Johnson assumed the presidency temporarily during September , after which it passed through several hands, settling for a time in those of Amos Sawyer, who managed to pacify some parts of the country. Libya may have used the Liberian civil war to undermine US influence in Liberia, since the CIA had reportedly used Liberia as a base to attempt the overthrow of Gadaffi's regime.
Burkina Faso's president Blaise Campaori, another Libyan protege, provided foreign mercenaries and training bases for Taylor. Military supplies and manpower from Libya and Burkina Faso were transported by road through the Ivory Coast to Liberia.
One of the factors that drove the warlords to reject a transition to normalcy was their exploitation of Liberia's natural resources. Once the war started, Taylor found wealth, and the war was increasingly about maintaining that fortune. The warlords were wantonly exploiting their country's resources to keep themselves and their ragtag forces in weapons with virtual impunity, and in some cases complicity.
The primary sources of revenue for these warlords were Liberia's diamonds, timber, rubber, gold, and iron ore. Timber and rubber are among Liberia's main export items. Alluvial diamond and gold mining activities also account for some economic activity. Barely 6 months after the rebels first attacked, they had reached the outskirts of Monrovia. Liberia has been marked by intermittent civil war ever since.
Although many Liberians were glad to see Doe's repressive regime removed, no group that emerged from the civil war was powerful enough to replace the Doe government. As a result, the Republic of Liberia was plunged into a state of chaos from which it has yet to emerge. Despite a cease-fire agreement signed in Bamako, Mali, in , the civil war never really ended. Johnson's forces captured and killed Doe on September 9, Amos C.
Sawyer became President.
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