Second Liberian Civil War

Liberia /laɪˈbɪəriə/, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the... west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open to a plateau of drier grasslands. The country possesses 40% of the remaining Upper Guinean rainforest. Liberia has a hot equatorial climate, with significant rainfall during the May to October rainy season and harsh harmattan winds the remainder of the year. Liberia covers an area of 111,369 km and is home to about 3.7 million people. English is the official language, while over 30 indigenous languages are spoken within the country. Along with Ethiopia, Liberia is one of the two modern countries in Sub-Saharan Africa without roots in the European colonization of Africa. Beginning in 1820, the region was colonized by freed American slaves with the help of the American Colonization Society, a private organization that believed ex-slaves would have greater freedom and equality in Africa.
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The Siege of Monrovia, which occurred in Monrovia, Liberia between July 18 and August 14, 2003, was a major military confrontation between the Armed... Forces of Liberia and LURD rebels during the Second Liberian Civil War. The shelling of the city resulted in the deaths of some 1,000 civilians. Thousands of people were displaced from their homes as a result of the conflict. By mid-August, after a two-month siege, Liberian president Charles Taylor went into exile and peacekeepers arrived as a result of the siege. In early 2003, a rebel group, the Movement for Democracy in Liberia , emerged in the south, and by the summer of 2003, Taylor's government controlled only a third of the country. Despite some setbacks, by mid-2003 LURD rebels controlled the northern third of the country and was threatening the capital. On August 14, Rebels lifted their siege of Liberia's capital and 200 American troops landed to support a West African peace force. Thousands of people danced and sang as American Marines and ECOMIL, the Nigerian-led West African troops, took over the port and bridges which had split the capital into government and rebel-held zones.
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