Sierra Leone

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Recommended: Colonialism as cause of the war in Sierra Leone

‘To the economist, this is war motivated by greed. For the young fighter, it is injustice.” At the end of the day, most scholars agree that diamonds are the main reason for the atrocities that happened in Serra Leone. Is the resource curse, abundance of a natural resource causing fights over it, really the only reasons 50,000 people died in the bloody civil war? The difficult in finding an answer is that neither side of the conflict wants the answer to come out. Unlike other civil wars, with one side clearly being the victim, both the rebels and the government in Serra Leone are guilty of brutally killing innocent citizens and forcing child to fight for their armies. If you did a google search of Sierra Leone you would find articles labeled “Blood Diamonds” and other things along those lines. Its obvious diamonds were somehow a factor, but what else was happening behind the scenes? Are we missing the bigger picture? The Revolutionary United Front (henceforth the RUF) forced thousands of child soldiers to fight for their cause. They didn’t only attack the government and army though...

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    “High We Exalt Thee, Realm of the Free”, is the national anthem of a rich and diverse country named Sierra Leone (“Sierra Leone”, 2013). Many believe that the names of capital cities or specific emblems always have a meaning behind them, and that is the case for this country in particular. Although the country as a whole has suffered detrimental set backs in their economics system due to civil war, violence, and enclave production; there still exists a strong Sierra Leonean people and culture full of hope for a brighter future.

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