First Liberian Civil War The First Liberian Civil War was an internal conflict in Liberia from 1989 until 1996 . The conflict killed over 200 , 000 people and eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) and of the United Nations . The peace did not last long , and in 1999 the Second Liberian Civil War broke out . Samuel Doe had led a coup d ' état that overthrew the elected government in 1980 , and in 1985 held elections that were widely considered fraudulent . There had been one unsuccessful coup by a former military leader . In December 1989 , former government minister Charles Taylor moved into the country from neighboring Côte d ' Ivoire to start an uprising meant to topple the Doe government . During the civil war , factions formed around Taylor and those who supported his former soldier with the National Patriotic Front of Liberia , Prince Johnson . Johnson took the capital Monrovia in 1990 and executed Doe , while Taylor ' s forces , the Armed Forces of Liberia , and Johnson ' s forces battled for control of Monrovia . Peace negotiations and foreign involvement led to a ceasefire in 1995 that was broken the next year before a final peace agreement and new national elections were held in 1997 . Taylor was elected President of Liberia in July 1997 . Background . Samuel Doe had taken power in a popular coup in 1980 against William R . Tolbert , becoming the first Liberian President of non Americo - Liberian descent . Doe established a military regime called the People ' s Redemption Council and enjoyed early support from a large number of indigenous Liberian tribes who had been excluded from power since the founding of the country in 1847 by freed American slaves . Any hope that Doe would improve the way Liberia was run was put aside as he quickly clamped down on opposition , fueled by his paranoia of a counter - coup attempt against him . As promised , Doe held elections in 1985 and won the presidency by just enough of a margin to avoid a runoff . However , international monitors condemned this election as fraudulent . Thomas Quiwonkpa , the former Commanding General of the Armed Forces of Liberia who Doe had demoted and forced to flee the country , attempted to overthrow Doe ' s regime from neighboring Sierra Leone . The coup attempt failed and Quiwonkpa was killed . Large scale crackdowns followed in Nimba County in the north of the country against the Gio and Mano tribes where the majority of the coup plotters came from . The mistreatment of the Gio and Mano tribes fueled ethnic tensions in Liberia , which had already been rising due to Doe ' s preferential treatment of his own group , the Krahn . Charles Taylor , who had left Doe ' s government after being accused of embezzlement , assembled a group of rebels in Côte d ' Ivoire ( mostly ethnic Gios and Manos who felt persecuted by Doe ) who later became known as the National Patriotic Front of Liberia ( NPFL ) . They invaded Nimba County on 24 December 1989 . The Liberian Army retaliated against the whole population of the region , attacking unarmed civilians and burning villages . Many left as refugees for Guinea and Côte d ’ Ivoire , but opposition to Doe was inflamed . Prince Johnson , an NPFL fighter , split to form his own guerrilla force soon after crossing the border , based on the Gio tribe and named Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia ( INPFL ) . Overview . By the middle of 1990 , a civil war was raging . Taylor ' s NPFL soon controlled much of the country , while Johnson began advancing into the capital , Monrovia . The Economic Community of West African States ( ECOWAS ) attempted to persuade Doe to resign and go into exile , but despite his weak position – besieged in his mansion – he refused . While making a brief trip out of the Executive Mansion to ECOMOG Headquarters , Doe was captured by Johnson on September 9 , 1990 , and tortured before being killed . The spectacle was videotaped and seen on news reports around the world . Peace was still far off as both Taylor and Johnson claimed power . ECOMOG declared an Interim Government of National Unity ( IGNU ) with Amos Sawyer as their president , with the broad support of Johnson . Taylor attacked Monrovia in 1992 , but ECOMOG reinforced the city and negotiated the Cotonou Agreement , a treaty between the NPFL , IGNU and Doe ’ s remaining supporters ( known as the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy or ULIMO ) . A coalition government was formed in August 1993 . In September 1994 , the Akosombo Agreement attempted to replace the coalition with moves towards a democratic government , but IGNU rejected this . The Abuja Accord of August 1995 finally achieved this , but in April 1996 the NPFL and ULIMO again began fighting in Monrovia , leading to the evacuation of most international Non - governmental organizations and the destruction of much of the city . Peace agreements signed included the : Events . Charles Taylor organized and trained some indigenous northerners in Ivory Coast . During Doe ' s regime Taylor had served in the Liberian Government ' s General Services Agency , acting ' as its " de facto " director ' . However , he fled to the United States in 1983 amid what Stephan Ellis describes as the ' increasingly menacing atmosphere in Monrovia ' shortly before Thomas Quiwonkpa , Doe ' s chief lieutenant , fled into exile himself . Doe requested Taylor ' s extradition for embezzling $ 900 , 000 of Liberian government funds . Taylor was thus arrested in the United States and after sixteen months broke out of a Massachusetts jail in circumstances that are still unclear . On December 24 , 1989 , Charles Taylor and a small group of Libyan - trained rebels calling themselves the National Patriotic Front of Liberia ( NPFL ) entered Nimba County from neighboring Côte d ' Ivoire , attacking the village of Butuo . The raid , mounted by a small group of men , managed to capture some weapons , and then the raiders withdrew to the jungle . The NPFL initially encountered plenty of support within Nimba County , which had endured the majority of Samuel Doe ’ s wrath after the 1985 attempted coup . When Taylor and his force of 100 rebels reentered Liberia in 1989 , on Christmas Eve , thousands of Gio and Mano joined them . While these formed the core of his rebel army , there were many Liberians of other ethnic backgrounds who joined as well . Doe responded by sending two AFL battalions , including the 1st Infantry Battalion , to Nimba in December 1989 - January 1990 , apparently under then - Colonel Hezekiah Bowen . The AFL acted in a very brutal and scorched - earth fashion which quickly alienated the local people . The rebel invasion soon pitted ethnic Krahn sympathetic to the Doe regime against those victimized by it , the Gio and the Mano . Thousands of civilians were massacred on both sides . Hundreds of thousands fled their homes . By May 1990 the AFL had been forced back to Gbarnga , still under the control of Bowen ' s troops , but they lost the town to a NPFL assault on 28 May . By June 1990 , Taylor ' s forces were laying siege to Monrovia . In July 1990 , Prince Yormie Johnson split from Taylor and formed the Independent National Patriotic Front ( INPFL ) . The INPFL and NPFL continued their siege on Monrovia , which the AFL defended . Johnson quickly took control of parts of Monrovia prompting evacuation of foreign nationals and diplomats by the US Navy in August . In August 1990 , the 16 - member ECOWAS agreed to deploy a joint military intervention force , the Economic Community Monitoring Group ( ECOMOG ) , and place it under Nigerian leadership . The mission later included troops from non - ECOWAS countries , including Uganda and Tanzania . ECOMOG ’ s objectives were to impose a cease - fire ; help Liberians establish an interim government until elections could be held ; stop the killing of innocent civilians ; and ensure the safe evacuation of foreign nationals . ECOMOG also sought to prevent the conflict from spreading into neighboring states , which share a complex history of state , economic , and ethno - linguistic social relations with Liberia . On 9 September 1990 , Doe visited the barely established , newly arrived ECOMOG headquarters in the Free Port of Monrovia . Stephen Ellis says , his motive was to lay a complaint that the ECOMOG commander had not paid a courtesy call to Doe , the Head of State , however , the exact circumstances that led to Doe ’ s visit to the Free Port are still unclear . Doe had been under pressure to accept exile outside of Liberia . However , after Doe arrived , a large rebel force led by Prince Johnson ’ s INPFL arrived at the headquarters and then attacked Doe ' s party . Doe was captured and taken to the INPFL ’ s Caldwell base . He was brutally tortured before being killed and dismembered . His torture and execution was videotaped by his captors . Johnson ’ s INPFL and Taylor ’ s NPFL continued to struggle for control of Monrovia in the months that followed . With military discipline absent and bloodshed throughout the capital region , members of ECOWAS created the Economic Community Monitoring Group ( ECOMOG ) to restore order . The force comprised some 4 , 000 troops from Nigeria , Ghana , Sierra Leone , the Gambia and Guinea . ECOMOG succeeded in bringing Taylor and Johnson to agree to its intervention , but Taylor ' s forces engaged it in the port area of Monrovia . In November 1990 , ECOWAS invited the principal Liberian players to meet in Banjul , Gambia to form a government of national unity . The negotiated settlement established the Interim Government of National Unity ( IGNU ) , led by Dr . Amos Sawyer , leader of the LPP . Bishop Ronald Diggs of the Liberian Council of Churches became vice president . However , Taylor ' s NPFL refused to attend the conference . Within days , hostilities resumed . ECOMOG was reinforced in order to protect the interim government . Sawyer was able to establish his authority over most of Monrovia , but the rest of Liberia was in the hands of various factions of the NPFL or of local gangs . ULIMO . The United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy ( ULIMO ) was formed in June 1991 by supporters of the late President Samuel Doe and former Armed Forces of Liberia ( AFL ) fighters who had taken refuge in Guinea and Sierra Leone . It was led by Raleigh Seekie , a deputy Minister of Finance in the Doe government . After fighting alongside the Sierra Leonean army against the Revolutionary United Front ( RUF ) , ULIMO forces entered western Liberia in September 1991 . The group scored significant gains in areas held by another rebel group – the National Patriotic Front of Liberia ( NPFL ) , notably around the diamond mining areas of Lofa and Bomi counties . From its outset , ULIMO was beset with internal divisions and the group effectively broke into two separate militias in 1994 : ULIMO - J , an ethnic Krahn faction led by General Roosevelt Johnson and ULIMO - K , a Mandingo - based faction led by Alhaji G . V . Kromah . The group was alleged to have committed serious violations of human rights , both before and after its breakup . UNOMIL . In 1993 , ECOWAS brokered a peace agreement in Cotonou , Benin . Following this , on September 22 , 1993 , the United Nations ( U . N . ) Security Council established the UN Observer Mission in Liberia ( UNOMIL ) , to support ECOMOG in implementing this Cotonou peace agreement . UNOMIL in early 1994 deployed 368 military observers and associated civilian personnel to monitor implementation of the abortive Cotonou Peace Agreement , prior to elections originally planned for February / March 1994 . Renewed armed hostilities , however , broke out in May 1994 and continued , becoming especially intense in July and August . ECOMOG , and later UNOMIL , members were captured and held hostage by some factions . By mid - 1994 , the humanitarian situation had become disastrous , with 1 . 8 million Liberians in need of humanitarian assistance . Conditions continued to deteriorate , but humanitarian agencies were unable to reach many in need due to hostilities and general insecurity . Factional leaders agreed in September 1994 to the Akosombo Agreement , a supplement to the Cotonou agreement , named after the Ghanaian town where it was signed , but the security situation in Liberia remained poor . In October 1994 , in the face of ECOMOG funding shortfalls and a lack of will by the Liberian combatants to honor agreements to end the war , the Security Council reduced to about 90 the number of UNOMIL observers . It extended UNOMIL ’ s mandate , however , and subsequently extended it several times until September 1997 . In December 1994 , the factions and other parties signed the Accra Agreement , a supplement to the Akosombo Agreement , but disagreements ensued and fighting continued . Ceasefire . In August 1995 , the main factions signed an agreement largely brokered by Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings . At a conference sponsored by ECOWAS , the United Nations and the United States , the European Union , and the Organization of African Unity , Charles Taylor agreed to a cease - fire and a timetable to demobilize and disarm his troops . At the beginning of September 1995 , Liberia ’ s three principal warlords – Taylor , George Boley and Alhaji Kromah – made theatrical entrances into Monrovia . A ruling council of six members under civilian Wilton G . S . Sankawulo and with the three factional heads Charles Taylor , Alhaji Kromah and George Boley , took control of the country preparatory to elections that were originally scheduled for 1996 . Heavy fighting broke out again in April 1996 . In August 1996 , these battles were ended by the Abuja Accord in Nigeria , agreeing to disarmament and demobilization by 1997 and elections in July of that year . 3 September 1996 , Sankawulo is followed by Ruth Perry as chairwoman of the ruling council , who served until 2 August 1997 . Elections 1997 . Simultaneous elections for the presidency and national assembly were finally held in July 1997 . In a climate hardly conducive to free movement and security of persons , Taylor and his National Patriotic Party won an overwhelming victory against 12 other candidates . Assisted by widespread intimidation , Taylor took 75 per cent of the presidential poll ( no other candidate won more than 10 per cent ) while the NPP won a similar proportion of seats in both parliamentary chambers . 2 August 1997 , Ruth Perry handed power to elected president Charles Taylor . Aftermath . Liberians had voted for Taylor in the hope that he would end the bloodshed . The bloodshed did slow considerably , but it did not end . Violent events flared up regularly after the putative end of the war . Taylor , furthermore , was accused of backing guerrillas in neighboring countries and funneling diamond monies into arms purchases for the rebel armies he supported , and into luxuries for himself . After Taylor ' s victory , the country was peaceful enough so that refugees began to return . But other leaders were forced to leave the country , and some ULIMO forces reformed as the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy ( LURD ) . LURD began fighting in Lofa County with the aim of destabilizing the government and gaining control of the local diamond fields , leading to the Second Liberian Civil War . In 1997 , the Liberian people elected Charles Taylor as the President after he entered the capital city , Monrovia , by force . The implicit unrest manifested during the late 1990s is emblematic in the sharp national economic decline and the prevalent sale of diamonds and timber in exchange for small arms . Impact . The 1989 - 1996 Liberian civil war , which was one of Africa ' s bloodiest , claimed the lives of more than 200 , 000 Liberians and further displaced a million others into refugee camps in neighboring countries . Entire villages were emptied as people fled . Child soldier s committed atrocities , raping and murdering people of all ages . Liberia ' s civil war claimed the lives of one out of every 17 people in the country , uprooted most of the rest , and destroyed a once - viable economic infrastructure . The strife also spread to Liberia ' s neighbors , contributing to a slowing of the democratization that was progressing steadily through West Africa at the beginning of the 1990s and destabilizing a region that already was one of the world ' s most marginal . Second Liberian Civil War . The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 and ended in October 2003 , when ECOWAS intervened to stop the rebel siege on Monrovia and exiled Charles Taylor to Nigeria until he was arrested in 2006 and taken to The Hague for his trial . By the conclusion of the final war , more than 250 , 000 people had been killed and nearly 1 million displaced . Half that number remain to be repatriated in 2005 , at the election of Liberia ' s first democratic President since the initial 1980 " coup d ' état " of Samuel Doe . The incumbent Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , who initially was a strong supporter of Charles Taylor , was inaugurated in January 2006 and the National Transitional Government of Liberia terminated its power .