LPC (1993–1996) LUDF (later becoming ULIMO) LDF (1993–1996)Supported by:ECOMOG ULIMO: Alhaji Kromah (ULIMO-K since 1994) Roosevelt Johnson (ULIMO-J since 1994) Raleigh Seekie † General Butt Naked (ULIMO-J since 1994) Jungle Jabbah (ULIMO-K since 1994) LPC: George BoleyLUDF: Albert Karpeh †FDL: Francois MassaquoiForeign support: Sani Abacha The First Liberian Civil War was the first of two civil wars within the West African nation of Liberia which lasted between 1989 and 1997.

President Samuel Doe's regime of totalitarianism and widespread corruption led to calls for withdrawal of the support of the United States, by the late 1980s.

Doe was captured and executed by the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), a splinter faction of the NPFL led by Prince Johnson, in September 1990.

[3] The First Liberian Civil War killed around 200,000 people and eventually led to the involvement of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations.

The peace lasted for two years until the Second Liberian Civil War broke out when anti-Taylor forces invaded Liberia from Guinea in April 1999.

Doe established a military regime called the People's Redemption Council and enjoyed support from Liberian ethnic groups who were denied power since the founding of the country in 1847.

Prince Johnson, an NPFL fighter, split to form his own guerrilla force soon after crossing the border, based on the Gio tribe and named Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL).

The NPFL initially encountered plenty of support within Nimba County, which had endured the majority of Samuel Doe's wrath after the 1985 attempted coup.

In their Freedom in the World report for 1990, Freedom House described Monrovia by July as "a virtual ghost town of starving people and rotting corpses" as the rebel advance on the city caused widespread panic and anarchy, leading to Liberian soldiers looting shops and killing civilians at random, all while hunger and disease quickly took hold.

ECOMOG's objectives were to impose a cease-fire; help Liberians establish an interim government until elections could be held; stop the killing of innocent civilians; and ensure the safe evacuation of foreign nationals.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) attempted to persuade Doe to resign and go into exile, but despite his weak position – besieged in his mansion – he refused.

According to Stephen Ellis,[16] his motive was to complain that the ECOMOG commander had not paid a courtesy call to him as the Head of State; however, the exact circumstances that led to Doe's visit to the Free Port are still unclear.

With military discipline absent and bloodshed throughout the capital region, members of ECOWAS created the Economic Community Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) to restore order.

Following this, on September 22, 1993, the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council established the UN Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL), to support ECOMOG in implementing this peace agreement.

UNOMIL was deployed in early 1994 with 368 military observers and associated civilian personnel to monitor implementation of the Cotonou Peace Agreement, prior to elections originally planned for February/March 1994.

In October 1994, in the face of ECOMOG funding shortfalls and a lack of will by the Liberian combatants to honor agreements to end the war, the UN Security Council reduced to about 90 the number of UNOMIL observers.

At the beginning of September 1995, Liberia's three principal warlords – Taylor, George Boley and Alhaji Kromah – made theatrical entrances into Monrovia.

A ruling council of six members under civilian Wilton G. S. Sankawulo and with the three factional heads Taylor, Kromah and Boley, took control of the country preparatory to elections that were originally scheduled for 1996.

In a climate hardly conducive to free movement and security of persons, Taylor and his National Patriotic Party won an overwhelming victory against 12 candidates.

Taylor, furthermore, was accused of backing guerrillas in neighboring countries and funneling diamond money into arms purchases for the rebel armies he supported, and into luxuries for himself.

The implicit unrest manifested during the late 1990s is emblematic in the sharp national economic decline and the prevalent sale of diamonds and timber in exchange for small arms.

LURD began fighting in Lofa County with the aim of destabilizing the government and gaining control of the local diamond fields, leading to the Second Liberian Civil War.

The Second Liberian Civil War began in 1999 and ended in October 2003, when ECOWAS intervened to stop the rebel siege on Monrovia and exiled Charles Taylor to Nigeria until he was arrested in 2006 and taken to The Hague for his trial.

Former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who initially was a strong supporter of Charles Taylor, was inaugurated in January 2006 and the National Transitional Government of Liberia terminated its power.

Charles Taylor was sentenced to a trial in 2003, after being accused of rape and acts of sexual violence, promoting child soldiers, and an illegal ownership of weapons.

The 2020 memoir by Liberian-American author Wayétu Moore, The Dragons, The Giant, The Women, recounts her family's flight from Monrovia when she was a five year old at the onset of the war.