ABSTRACT
Civilians have played various roles in civil wars across the international system. In the case of West Africa, they have played three major roles. First, various armed factions in countries like Liberia and Sierra Leone have been organized and led by civilian warlords. Second, civilians have served as combatants. Third, civilians have been victims, as evidenced by the bearing of the brunt of death, injury, internal displacement, and the refugee conundrum. Against this background, the purpose of this chapter is to examine the nature and dynamics of the multiple roles civilians have played in civil wars in West Africa. The chapter uses the Senegalese, Nigerian, Liberian, Sierra Leonean, Malian, Nigerien, Guinea Bissauan, and Ivorian civil wars as the empirics, and argues for the importance of taking an integrative approach to the study of civilians in West African conflict.
