By mid-1990, two rival factions of rebel fighters advanced on the Liberian capital Monrovia and President Samuel Doe was hiding out in his executive mansion near the seaside.

[1] Approximately 30 government soldiers[2] climbed over the wall of the church yard on the night of 29 July and carried out the massacre, shooting and hacking to death men, women and children, indiscriminate of age.

[1] The massacre, the worst single atrocity of the First Liberian Civil War,[4] resulted in neighbouring countries sending an armed intervention force, under the leadership of the Economic Community of West African States.

[2] One of the two rival rebel leaders, Prince Johnson, the other being Charles Taylor,[3] requested that the United States intervene, but it declined to send in the 2,000 Marines stationed off shore.

[5] United Nations Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar stated he was horrified by the massacre and requested the protection of civilians in the country.