Lofa County was established from the former Western Province in 1964. The civil war which began in 1989 adversely affected the county. Many people left the area as refugees in 1999 and the early 2000s as it became a main focus of fighting during the Liberian civil war. The Red Cross said that in January 2004 many people had begun to return from refugee camps in neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone. At that time the county's population was estimated to be 34,310. Pakistan Army UNMIL peacekeepers were in place by 2005.