ABSTRACT
The Liberian civil war threw up a string of scenarios – sometimes conflicting, often mutually reinforcing. This chapter provides a panoramic survey of the main characteristics of the crisis especially those that qualified it for the extensive and somewhat controversial international attention it received. It discusses the four phases of the conflict. The first covers the beginning of the war to the assassination of President Samuel Doe. The second deals with the period between Doe's death and the launching of 'Operation Octopus'. The period after Octopus through to the outbreak of renewed violence of April 1996 comprises the third phase, while the post-April 1996 events constitute the final phase. Any attempt to discuss the war economy in Liberia should be prefaced with an admission of a lack of statistical information to back up claims. The chapter also focuses on the internal dynamics that shaped the war, while it identifies characteristics of the conflict that diverted international attention to it.
