On 23 March 1991, a civil war which would continue for 11 years started in Sierra Leone. The conflict began when the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), with support from the special forces of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) attempted to overthrow Joseph Momoh’s government. The conflict expanded rapidly to the whole country and was marked by serious human rights and international humanitarian law violations. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 200,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands had to move along the country.

In January 1999, the international community intervened diplomatically in order to promote the negotiations between the RUF and the government, and this resulted in the Lomé Peace Agreement signed on March 27 that year. In 2001, the United Nations punished Liberia for having supported the RUF uprising by providing firearms and training in exchange of the so called “blood diamonds”. After some years of progress and setbacks, the United Nations Peacekeeping Operation finally announced the end of the civil war in 2002. Free elections were held in the same year. The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, provided for in the peace agreement effective between 2002 and 2004, recorded all the violations committed during the time of the war, investigated their causes and made over 220 future recommendations in regards to both the victims’ reparation and non-repetition measures. The Special Court for Sierra Leone, effective between 2002 and 2013, was jointly established by the Sierra Leone Government and the United Nations and served the purpose of judging those who were mainly responsible for the serious violations committed against internal law as well as humanitarian law.