Sirleaf later disavowed Taylor and went on to win a Nobel Peace Prize for supporting the non-violent struggle for the safety of women to participate in peace-building work.

[4] Tom Woewiyu served as the Defense Minister and spokesman of the NPLF and worked to justify the rebel group's mission and objectives to high ranking foreign officials.

[11] Under the orders of Taylor and Compaoré, NPFL troops were actively involved in the 1987 Burkina Faso coup d'état and assassination of the then Burkinabé President Thomas Sankara.

To facilitate covert aid to the Angolan rebel movement UNITA, the United States upgraded Roberts Field airport and utilized the Kamina and Kinshasa air bases in Zaire as key transit points.

Following a series of coups d'états attempted by Commanding General Thomas Quiwonkpa of the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and his ally later turned enemy Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, tensions between the Dan, Mano, and Krahn ethnic groups increased.

While Quiwonkpa and Doe initially joined together to overthrow Liberian President William Tolbert in a military coup on 12 April 1980, it was not long before these two fell out of step.

[17] According to estimates, the National Patriotic Front of Liberia boasted a membership of approximately 25,000 combatants, and its actions were associated with a range of human rights violations, including but not limited to massacres, sexual violence, forced recruitment of child soldiers, mutilation, torture, kidnapping, and political assassinations.

In addition to the ongoing civil war in Liberia, the rebel group supported the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Sierra Leone, fomenting unrest against the military government in order to secure control over the local diamond trade in the region.

The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) emerged as a collective of Sierra Leonean nationals who endeavored to emulate Charles Taylor's previous triumph in overthrowing the Liberian government.

Alongside founder Foday Sankoh, of Temne background, and allies Abu Kanu and Rashid Mansaray, the RUF received substantial assistance from Charles Taylor in developing the leadership positions of the organization.

[18] The NPFL rapidly expanded from a small force of a few hundred troops to a vast, irregular army that controlled almost 90% of Liberia within a year due to significant domestic support.

NPFL efforts to capture the capital city of Monrovia were thwarted by the arrival of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) cease-fire monitoring group, ECOMOG.

Taylor's authority as self-proclaimed head of the NPRAG was, however, challenged by a breakaway faction, known as the Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia (INPFL), led by Prince Yormie Johnson.

On 15 October 1992, the NPFL launched "Operation Octopus" in a bid to overrun the capital Monrovia, Charles Taylor ordered the NPFL and the Small Boys Unit (SBU), composed of child soldiers, to attack opponents Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group (ECOMOG), the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL), and the United Liberation Movement of Liberia for Democracy (ULIMO) forces.

[24] While international observers deemed the polls administratively free and transparent, they noted that it had taken place in an atmosphere of intimidation because most voters believed that Taylor would resume the war if defeated.