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Email this citationCIAO DATE: 10/05
Re-Armament in Sierra Leone: One Year After the Lomé Peace Agreement
Eric Berman
December, 2000
Abstract
On 7 July 1999, the government of Sierra Leone and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) signed the Lomé Peace Agreement in an effort to end over eight years of civil war between the government and the RUF. This confl ict resulted in tens of thousands of deaths and the displacement of more than 2 million people – well over one-third of the total population – many of whom are now refugees in neighbouring countries. A central component of this agreement called for the RUF to disarm. But this did not happen. Instead, a year later, the RUF leader, Foday Sankoh, was in the custody of the Sierra Leonean government and the future of the peace accord was in grave doubt.
One thing was clear, however: far from disarming, all parties – the RUF, as well as the government and its allies – have been re-arming at an alarming rate. They are doing so in contravention of a 1997 UN arms embargo (amended in June 1998 to exclude the Sierra Leonean government) and despite a 1998 regional moratorium on the production, procurement and sale of small arms and light weapons.
