In 1999, Guinea had 450,000 refugees from the First Liberian Civil War and the Sierra Leone Civil War, the highest number in Africa at the time. Most of these refugees lived near the borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia. While this border region was initially peaceful, in the late 1990s the Sierra Leonean rebel group RUF began to conduct cross border raids into Guinea. The start of the Second Liberian Civil War in 1999 lead to an influx of more refugees and cross border raids from Liberian forces.