Columbia International Affairs Online: Working Papers

CIAO DATE: 11/2009

Observing the 1997 Liberia Special Elections

October 1997

The Carter Center

Abstract

On December 24, 1989, Charles Taylor launched a rebellion against Samuel Doe's regime, igniting a civil conflict in Liberia that lasted seven years. As a result, one tenth of the pre war population died, and hundreds of thousands of people became refugees and internally displaced. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)intervened with military force in August 1990, but was unable to end the war as an array of armed forces fought for control of the country.