Sierra Leone is a former British colony in West Africa, close to the equator, with an area of 71,740 square kilometres (27,700 square miles)—similar in size to South Carolina or Scotland. By 2000, the country had been engaged in a civil war between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The RUF was a rebel group formed in the late 1980s and fought against successive governments until the Lomé Peace Accord in 1997, in which it was given the status of a legitimate political party and its leader, Foday Sankoh, was appointed vice president. Despite this, in April 2000, the RUF attacked a disarmament camp into which four of its members had been admitted.