What Underlying Factors Led Liberia and Ivory Coast into Civil Wars? Submitted By: Amie Mendscole Professor: Dr. Stevenson Submitted For: Senior seminar paper Abstract The civil wars witnessed in Liberia and Ivory Coast had causative factors. Most of these factors are the usual and obvious factor that rock such countries. However, there was more to the wars than the common causes. For example, in Liberia, Charles Tailor who represented the population of the former slaves brought in towards the end of Slavery in America, was opposed to Doe, who represented the indigenous communities in the country. Liberia had been used to a rule by people who were slaves but Doe, an indigenous person rose to the top seat in the early 1980s. This did not go well with the likes of Charles Taylor and they started an armed rebellion to his rule. In Ivory Coast, almost the same script happened. The technocrats were opposed to be ruled by people they considered outsiders. This pitted Alassane Ouattara against Laurent Gbagbo because they considered Ouatarra an outsider. Together with other immigrants, they were targeted and several people were killed as a result. Comment by Linda Stevenson: In a civil war, usually the numbers are more accurately described as “thousands” or “tens of thousands.” TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………..……………………………………….. 2 Executive Summary…………………………………….…………………………………….4 Chapter 1: Introduction……………………………………………………………………...6 Chapter 2: Social Disputes……………………………………………………………………7 Chapter 3: Government and Rebellion Movement………………….…………………….12 Chapter 4: Religious Affairs………………………………………...………………………14 Chapter 5: Literature Review……...…………………………………………………………16 Chapter 6: Research Design…….………….………….……………………………………..18 6.1. Research Questions…………………………………………………………….....19 Chapter 7: Findings………….………………………………….……….…………………...24 Chapter 8: Conclusions………………………………………………………………………33 References....………………………………………………………………..…………..…….35 Executive Summary Civil wars have occurred in many countries in the world. While the starting of the wars is seemingly spontaneous, many civil wars are caused by various factors that come at play either deliberately or as a result of the war itself. The civil wars in Africa particularly are caused by many factors. These factors range from differences in political background, poor economies, intolerance among members of different communities among others. There is even blame on their former colonial masters and other Western countries. The result of these wars is a dilapidated country, infrastructure, loss of lives, increased number of refugees and internally displaced persons among others. What could be the cause of the wars in Africa? What is the way forward to stopping these wars? The paper particularly focuses on two countries, Liberia and Ivory Coast. What is the estimated cost of the wars in the two countries and the estimated number of people who died? The figures a.

1. What Underlying Factors Led Liberia and Ivory Coast into Civil
Wars?
Submitted By: Amie Mendscole
Professor: Dr. Stevenson
Submitted For: Senior seminar paper
Abstract
The civil wars witnessed in Liberia and Ivory Coast had

2. causative factors. Most of these factors are the usual and
obvious factor that rock such countries. However, there was
more to the wars than the common causes. For example, in
Liberia, Charles Tailor who represented the population of the
former slaves brought in towards the end of Slavery in America,
was opposed to Doe, who represented the indigenous
communities in the country. Liberia had been used to a rule by
people who were slaves but Doe, an indigenous person rose to
the top seat in the early 1980s. This did not go well with the
likes of Charles Taylor and they started an armed rebellion to
his rule.
In Ivory Coast, almost the same script happened. The
technocrats were opposed to be ruled by people they considered
outsiders. This pitted Alassane Ouattara against Laurent Gbagbo
because they considered Ouatarra an outsider. Together with
other immigrants, they were targeted and several people were
killed as a result. Comment by Linda Stevenson: In a civil
war, usually the numbers are more accurately described as
“thousands” or “tens of thousands.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract……………………………………………..………………
……………………….. 2
Executive
Summary…………………………………….………………………
…………….4
Chapter 1:

3. Introduction…………………………………………………………
…………...6
Chapter 2: Social
Disputes………………………………………………………………
……7
Chapter 3: Government and Rebellion
Movement………………….…………………….12
Chapter 4: Religious
Affairs………………………………………...………………………
14
Chapter 5: Literature
Review……...…………………………………………………………
16
Chapter 6: Research
Design…….………….………….……………………………………
..18
6.1. Research
Questions……………………………………………………………...
..19
Chapter 7:
Findings………….………………………………….……….………
…………...24
Chapter 8:
Conclusions…………………………………………………………
……………33
References....…………………………………………………………
……..…………..…….35

4. Executive Summary
Civil wars have occurred in many countries in the world. While
the starting of the wars is seemingly spontaneous, many civil
wars are caused by various factors that come at play either
deliberately or as a result of the war itself. The civil wars in
Africa particularly are caused by many factors. These factors
range from differences in political background, poor economies,
intolerance among members of different communities among
others. There is even blame on their former colonial masters and
other Western countries. The result of these wars is a
dilapidated country, infrastructure, loss of lives, increased
number of refugees and internally displaced persons among
others. What could be the cause of the wars in Africa? What is
the way forward to stopping these wars? The paper particularly
focuses on two countries, Liberia and Ivory Coast. What is the
estimated cost of the wars in the two countries and the
estimated number of people who died? The figures are shown
below.
Liberia [First Civil War] Comment by Linda Stevenson: What
years? Comment by Linda Stevenson: Put in a comparative
table. Hard to read this.
Number of people killed – 100,000 – 220,000
Number of people displaced – over 1,000,000
The monetary cost to the country is hard to estimate but it was
huge and its economy was completely brought to its knees
Comment by Linda Stevenson: Numbers?
Liberia [Second Civil War] Comment by Linda Stevenson:
Years?
Number of people killed – more than 100,000
Number of displaced persons – More than a million
Many children used in the war as soldiers became traumatized
Ivory Coast [First Ivorian War] Comment by Linda
Stevenson: When?

5. Number of people killed – about 2000
Number of displaced persons –more than 500,000
Economic impact felt after trade embargos were placed by
foreign countries. Comment by Linda Stevenson: Which?
Why?
Almost the same effect was felt in the Second Ivorian Crisis
Comment by Linda Stevenson: When?
Chapter 1: Introduction
For the purpose of IPI’s project on Understanding Compliance
with Security Council Resolutions in Civil Wars, a civil war
consists of one or several simultaneous disputes over generally
incompatible positions that concern government and/or territory
in a state; are causally linked to the use of armed force,
resulting in at least 500 battle-related deaths during a given
year during the conflict; and involve two or more parties, of
which the primary warring parties are the government of the
state where armed force is used, and one or several non-state
opposition organization(s).
There are many different reasons that countries enter civil war.
These factors can arise from anything economic, social, ethnic,
cultural disputes or a combination of several of these factors.
No matter the number of the reasons, a civil war can be
devastating, causing loss of many lives, properties and leaving a
country utterly ravished. The aftermath can also present much
difficulty to deal with considering the complete destruction of a
country’s basic infrastructures, economy, educational systems

6. and sometimes even government. Nevertheless, there is always a
reason for an uprising or civil war and I will be looking at some
of the motivations behind a country’s civil war.
This paper looks into the causes of civil wars in Africa in
general and particularly the factors that plunged Liberia and
Ivory Coast into civil wars. The civil wars were propagated by
different factions that were opposing the government or were
pro-government. The various factors in question here include
the religious affairs in the countries, the social disputes as well
as the government and rebellion movements (Kieh G. , 2008).
Chapter 2: Social Disputes
Social disputes can be the cause of many civil conflicts in
countries all around the world. However, there are factors that
give rise to the struggle between or among social classes; and
these issues can be related to economic hardship or differences
among social classes, religion, cultural social or ethnic
differences and many other problems that can directly or
indirectly cause social uprising. To explain extant and recent
cases of religion-ethnic conflict in Africa, Kaplan seeks to
account for them by reference to three main factors: “cultural
dysfunction; loose family structures; and communalism and
animism” (Kaplan, 1994). Haynes describes Africa’s recent
civil wars, like those in Liberia and Sierra Leone, as anarchic
and primitive. He claims that they were initially caused by fixed
ethnic and cultural realities, limiting the involvement of the
Western world (Haynes, 2007)
Despite Kaplan’s theory, Collier and Hoeffler offer another
explanation for ‘‘the rising trend of African conflict’’ identified
by SIPRI: ‘‘Africa has experienced a rising trend of conflict
because its economies have performed so poorly both absolutely
and relative to other regions.” (Collier & Hoeffler, 2004). The
cause of civil war is not always automatically the result of deep
problems within Africa’s social structure; or necessarily from
obvious or serious religious and, or ethnic fragmentation. The

7. cause of civil conflict can also be associated with the contingent
effect of discouraging economic circumstances and development
disappointments. There are two major points that are worth
taking a look at with regards to discouraging economic
circumstances. First, because of the obvious ethnic and
religious divisions in many African nations, it is of no surprise
that for most regional states, it has been proven difficult to
build nation-states or build a nation in which the citizens share
common beliefs, language and culture. Second, African states,
are always seeking to build their countries’ struggling
economies toward self-sustainability in order to alleviate
endemic poverty, have terribly failed. Therefore, it can be
argued, that many social disputes in African countries are for
economic and developmental reasons, rather than because of
Africans’ allegedly anarchic and primitive characteristics, that
many African countries have experienced civil conflicts many
believe is due to religious-ethnic concerns over the past four
decades. According to Collier and Hoeffler, “civil wars in
Africa do not necessarily result from the kinds of problems that
Kaplan points to; rather, the often deep problems in Africa’s
social structure that sometimes result in civil war, are a
contingent effect of straightened economic circumstances”
(Collier & Hoeffler, 2004, p.567). For instance; there are data
showing that some African countries such as Cameroon,
Tanzania and Malawi that have high levels of ethnic and/or
religious division have not experienced postcolonial civil wars.
However, the propensity regarding this seems related to how
these states are able to deal with popular concerns, especially
ones concerning massive, rapid, social and economic changes
that exemplify modernization (Haynes, 2007).
Because of East Africa’s religious and ethnic diverse
background, government methods in dealing with potential
societal division between religious groups or factions are vague.
It has been difficult for any East African state to retain
democracy for a long period of time since the early 1960s. The
early 1990s civil war broke out in Somalia and around the same

8. time Liberia, another country from the western region of Africa
was also experiencing a civil war due to ethnic issues. A few
years after, ethnic riots broke out in Kenya October of 1995. It
has been observed that economic and developmental failures,
combined with a state inability to deal with these issues, have
been especially related to the cause of civil war in Africa. In
some African countries, ethnic and/or religious problems can
lead to or have led to serious political and societal conflicts,
even including civil war that can last for decades. Like in
Liberia where ethnic scape-goating based on the rationalization
that one group is being treated unfairly. The government of
Liberia violated basic human rights, including the freedoms of
speech, assembly and the press, eliminating all legal avenues
for the people to speak and share their dissatisfaction or
grievances. Thus, for the dissenting groups, the only option was
to turn to armed violence (Abubakarr, 2011). Comment by
Linda Stevenson: Need to describe this in more detail.
According to Jakobsen and Soysa, the reason a group of people
rebel is different from the reason an individual will result to
violence as it relates to the cause of civil war. “Group-grievance
explanations contrasted with individualistic, rational choice
explanations for predicting civil war.”(Jakobsen, 2009). This
can serve as a motivation for civil conflict based on shared
grievances against unfair treatment and economic or social
injustice. On the other hand, a study by the World Bank
suggested that men rebel for private gain rather than fairness
which have been seriously criticized. Is civil war violence truly
based on injustice, grievance or greed? Is it based for self-
serving reasons, or more on justice-seeking motives of the
masses as many explanations of ‘ethnic conflict’ suggest?
“Models rebellion is an industry that generates profits from
looting, so that 'the insurgents are indistinguishable from
bandits or pirates” (Collier & Hoeffler, 2004). These types of
rebellion are entirely motivated by greed. Rebels join these
movements in order to acquire wealth from looting or taking
advantage of the spoils of war ranging from a few thousand

9. dollars to millions of dollars in a country’s natural resources.
(Haynes, 2007).Collier & Hoeffler debated article about ‘Greed
and Grievance in Civil War’, factors related to opportunity and
grievance as motivations for rebellion were tested and their
findings explained that opportunity had more descriptive power
than grievance. He explained that those who rebel do so because
of the lack of democracy or simply because they hate another
ethnic group or religion. They defined Grievance as “widely
shared dissatisfaction among group members about their
cultural, political and/or economic standing” (Collier &
Hoeffler, 2004, p.572) Comment by Linda Stevenson: Good
questions! Good way to respond to the various perspectives in
the lit review.
There are two opposing schools that claim to explain collective
violence, deprived actor and rational actor schools. These
approaches to understanding violence related to civil war are
very different. Deprived actor (DA) logic, state that grievance
is cause by repression, which can lead to arm rebellion.
Grievance is rationalized as an initiating factor of rebellion
with promise of potential rewards which serves as motivation
for rebels. This is called the (RA) Rational Actor.
Another Relative Deprivation explains the experience of an
individual being denied something to which he/she feels entitled
eliciting violence behavior in an effort to reclaim what is
rightfully his/hers. Comment by Linda Stevenson [2]:
Citations?
As noted by Haynes “It is impossible accurately to predict or
account for ethnic or religious conflict by reference to simple
fragmentation models”. Adding, it is very important that the
government method of achieving balance of maintaining a fair
level of social peace is more important than these cultural or
religious divisions. The former British colonies of Uganda and
Sudan with significant Christian and Muslim electoral districts
are perfect candidates for a case study because each country in
varying ways exemplifies the involvement of both religious-
ethnic and economic issues that have brought about long lasting

10. grievances seen in the countries by ethno-religious groups
(Haynes, 2007).
On the other hand, “(Mamdani 1988, pp. 1170 – 1171) argues
that what distinguished Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement from
other rebel groups in Uganda during the 1980s was that its
leadership did not come from the middle class but from within
peasant society” (Haynes 2007). He indicated that the
peasantry’s loss of faith in traditional leaders and the inability
of the government to come to suitable political resolution or
program for area of rising conflicts or offer significant
economic development to poor communities such was the case
with the Acholi people of northern Uganda and the Yoweri
Museveni’s National Resistance Movement government.
Chapter 3: Government and Rebellion Movement
The objective of rebellion is either to capture the state to
implement change or to break away from it. To stage a rebellion

11. one must first decide if it can be accomplished taking into
consideration the consequences of a failed rebellion or even
victory. We should also take in to account ability on the
government to defend itself or fight back. Collier and Hoeffler
write about Grossman’s assertion that “the military technology
option of rebel factions are limited, whereas the government can
mount up a wide range of military equipment if the budget is
assessable and available. This can be an issue for rebel faction
even if the funds can be obtained. For countries with substantial
military power, a rebellion can be almost impossible or
extremely difficult. In this condition for the rebels, the longer
the war last, the more difficult it is to accomplish victory
depending on the government military expenditure as well as
the rebels. According to Grossman, in this kind of situation it
would benefit the rebels to join forces with other rebel factions
for the same cost but seeks different rewards or plan a rebellion
that is precise and timely.
Natural resources such as diamonds and oil can be the turning
point in fueling civil war. Countries like Sierra Leone and
Liberia, have suffered civil unrest that were primarily funded by
conflict diamonds. When you take a look into the second
Liberian civil war that lasted from 1997 to 2003, you will find
no given explanation or analytical framework to explain the
reason the war was fought. There are speculations or claims that
civil conflicts arise from a confluence of problems including,
the distribution of resources, and admittance to power, and
contrasting issues of what is right, wrong and unjust. There
were also issues relating to human right violations, including
many constitutional rights that were taken away from the
Liberian people including freedom of speech and press. The
result was a second rebellion.
Fearlon uses Suzuki’s model and argues that “a country with
poor economy, a large population, and high revenue dependency
on the exportation of oil is more likely to experience civil war
more so, if it is a newly independent state or country, with
political instability, ruled by a weak government, and has

12. borders or territory suitable to rural guerrilla attacks.”
However, it remains the claim by Henderson and Singer as well
as Hegre et al, that a lot of political scientists rely on the
hypothesis that firm domestic governance can reduce civil
conflict. They argue that it contains a legitimate approach for
peaceful conflict resolution. Due to the possibility of peaceful
negotiations or resolutions and very high cost of rebellion
because of democratic constraints, very strong governments are
less likely than other political regimes to engage into civil war.
Chapter 4: Religious Affairs
A large number amount of civil unrest in Africa is related to
ethnic and religious splits or hatred. Many countries such as
Sudan, Angola, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo,
Nigeria, Rwanda Ivory Coast, Uganda and many more have
experienced either ethnic or religious struggle, or both. In this
section, we will examine religious affairs as it relates to
violence conflicts especially in Africa.
Looking at a third of Uganda’s 23 million population are Roman
Catholic, 1/3 Protestant and 16% Muslim, these religions have
coexisted for centuries. After Uganda’s independence, a
syncretistic politico-religious movement called the Holy Spirit
Movement pop out of northern Uganda and stood against the
government of Uganda in 1963. In the 1980s, a series of battles

13. were fought between the Holy Spirit Movement politico-
religious group and the National Resistance Army of Uganda.
The fact that many Africans find religion as a means of altering
or changing their striving situations, accepting these Africans
revolutionaries hiding behind religions were the perfect excuse
to do something to change their circumstances. In 1987 the
Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) was founded following the
defeat of the Holy Spirit Movement. (J. Haynes 2007) The LRA
was founded with the sole purpose of governing the country in
accordance with the Ten Commandments of the bible which had
nothing to do with politics.
Sudan is a different story. The institutionalization of Islam has
manifested itself and achieved the status of state ideology. The
religious conflict in Sudan is primarily between the Muslims
and Non-Muslims in a fight for economic resources with respect
to religious-ethnicity and the decision of who gets what in the
allocation of the region’s resources. Non-Arab partially
Christian groups such as the Dinka, Nuer and Nuba have been
the victims for a long period of time by the state at the mercy of
the ruling Islamic military (Paul, 2010).
The civil wars in Liberia and Ivory Coast also took the same
angle of religious affairs. Although as a country, Liberia is
composed of mostly Christians and Muslims. President Charles
Taylor support the Muslims for his own political reasons.
Taylor was an ally of Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi and
since the former trained in Libya before returning to Liberia, he
still had ties with the Libyan Leader. Evidence is rife of the
destruction of religious buildings during the wars. The
government and rebel forces destroyed various mosques that
belonged to Liberian Muslims which was considered to be an
act of enemy ethnic group. In addition, several massacres took
place near mosques and Muslim schools. For example, one
barbaric act during the wars was the killing of over 400
civilians in Bakerdu where most of the victims were Madingos
who are Muslims (Pike, 2011).
In Ivory Coast, the script was the same. However, the religious

14. composition of the country is somewhat balanced with 38.6% of
the population being Muslim, 32.6% Christians, 16.7%
irreligious and 11.9% being traditional believers(Annan, 2014).
The conflicts in Ivory Coast was a by-product of deep-seated
cleavages that revolved around nationality, ethnicity and
religion. Politicians such as Gbagbo and Outtara tapped into the
differences to consolidate powers and in the process drove the
country into the civil war (Tom, 2011).
Chapter 5: Literature review
Various studies exist in the causes of civil wars in Africa.
However, few exist in the specific area of the cause of civil war
in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The authors undertook to carry out
elaborate research about the civil wars in Africa. The research
span from the causes to the implications that civil wars have on
the African countries. In the paper sponsored by African
Development Bank, John, C. Anyanwu focuses on the economic
and political causes that lead to civil wars in Africa. The article
is insightful in that it details the roles played by politicians and
the economic status of the citizens in fueling civil wars
(Nnoma, 1997).
In their paper, Elbadawi and Sambanis focus on understanding
the civil wars in Africa as the first step towards understanding
and prevention of violent conflicts in the region. This article
gives information on the various solutions that could be applied
to end civil conflicts in Africa. The solutions proposed here are
important in giving a head start in curing the civil strife in
Africa. Abdalla Bujra delves into African conflicts with regard
to their causes. The research by this author is important since
most of the causes of civil wars in Africa can be specific to

15. Liberia and Ivory Coast (Collier, 2002).
Annan analyzes the violent conflicts as well as civil strife that
has taken place in West Africa. Even after the wars, there were
challenges faced in overcoming the deplorable effects of the
wars. In Liberia for example, there was the effect of forgiving
those people that the citizens felt were behind the war. There is
always the question of justice for the victims. In his research,
Annan seeks to introduce the concept of poor understanding of
the causes of the war. He states that if there is poor
understanding of causes of the wars in West Africa, there is the
likelihood of these countries relapsing to wars again. It is likely
to lead to continued suffering from the wars. This research is
important as it tells of how resolving the conflict amicably is
important to ensure that there is no recurrence of the wars
(Annan, 2014).
This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on this topic and
focuses on an underrepresented pair of country cases with long
histories of conflict: Liberia and Ivory Coast. The two countries
faced some of the deadliest civil wars in the history of the
continent. They therefore offer a good case study of the
continent in the context of civil wars. With the use of the above
researcht is possible to carry out further research, this time,
being specific to the two countries. Comment by Linda
Stevenson [3]: Good lead-in and coverage of a range of factors
leading to civil wars in Africa.

16. Chapter 6: Research Design
In the course of the research to determine, the underlying
factors that caused civil wars in Liberia and Ivory Coast,
several research methods were applied to obtain data and any
other relevant information. One of the ways was to create a
survey and ask Liberians and Ivory Coast citizens their opinions
about the cause of the war. The survey was distributed via
social media, and x number of people participated. To collect
data, there was the need to develop several research questions
that had to be answered in the research. The research therefore
was set out to answer several research questions. An analysis of
the data from the research question is also included in the
design. The research questions are listed below:
6.1. Research Questions
Research questions used in this research [Indicate the country
where it was applicable, Liberia and Ivory Coast]
1. Name
2. Gender
3. Age
4. What was the role of political leaders and elite in fueling
civil wars in the country [Liberia or Ivory Coast] on a scale of
1-5. {1-low, 5-high}
5. On a scale of 1-5, to what degree did ethnic differences cause
the conflicts?

17. 6. In your own observation, did the natural resources play a role
in the war?
7. How many internally displaced persons and refugees did the
wars cause?
a) 50,000-100,000
b) 100,000-250,000
c) 250,000-500,000
d) 500,000-1,000,000
e) More than a 1,000,000
8. Do you believe the economic condition of the countries
[disparity between the rich and the poor] played a role in
starting the war?
9. In your own opinion, did the government in question do
enough to stop the war?
10. In your own opinion, did the Western forces [U.N and
U.S.A] do enough to end the wars?
11. On a scale of 1-5 did the victims of the wars get enough
justice?
12. Of the following answers, from which did the rebels get
funding of arms?
a) Libya
b) Nigeria
c) Russia
d) USA
e) Other _____________
13. What was the response of the government to the rebellion
movements in the war?
a. Harsh
b. Aloof
c. Forceful retaliation
d. Friendly
· What was the consequence of the answer you have chosen
above
14. What is the religious composition in the country?
a. Christianity
b. Islam

18. c. African tradition
d. Others
· List them as [most, moderate, minority, majority]
15. Are able to operate a Facebook or Tumbrl account? If yes do
you have one?
· Yes
· No
16. According to UNHCR, the number of refugees in the
country was huge. According to you, comparing the number of
refuges and internally displaced persons, which number was
more?
a. Refugees
b. Internally displaced persons
In Liberia and Ivory Coast, it was the norm for the political
class incited the public in various aspects. As has been stated
out, civil strife in most cases is started and sparked of by a
combination of factors. The citizens of a country or region must
have various reasons that push them to fight other citizens. As
has been established or may be established in this research. The
types of data used in this research are both primary and
secondary data. The primary data collected directly for the
purposes of this research while the secondary data is the data
already collected (Rotberg, 2003).
The types of data used depend on the nature of the research
question. In most cases, the secondary data was obtained from
the UN related websites such as UNHCR. Due to the
geographical location of the countries, the primary data was
limited to interviews through social media such as Facebook
and Tumbrl. The biggest source of data was secondary as
enough resources are available online to be used in the research.
The various data obtained were mainly continuous. They
include the population in the two countries before the civil wars
broke out, the documented number of refugees caused by the
war, as well as the number of internally displaced persons.
Further, the number of deaths resulting from the civil wars and
data on economic impact were also incorporated in the research

19. (Anyanwu, 2002).
Most of the secondary data used came from the internet
where several websites listed such data in a well-organized
manner. To collect the data, various key variables had to be
established. The variables are mostly independent in nature.
They include the number of refugees, political input, ethnic
composition, natural resources, conflict resolution, civil
conflict, effects of outside forces, and military aid among
others. The measurement or assessment of the above variables
takes into consideration the research question used in relation to
the research variables. In this research, the choice of the
variables was carefully considered and undertaken to ensure
maximum information or source of data was utilized in
determination of the research outcome.
The first hypothesis to be tested is the one that pushes for
the source of civil war to be political. It is a widely believed
hypothesis that civil wars in the two countries were caused by
political reasons. For example, in Liberia, the first civil war
was sparked by political differences and coup de tat in the
country. These political differences included the continued
appointment of people from Doe’s tribe at the expense of other
tribes, among others. In Ivory Coast, suspected rigging of
elections sparked the 2010 civil war by the incumbent
government. Another hypothesis for both Liberia and Ivory
Coast is that the civil wars took the form of social disputes
where different social classes took arms against each other
(Pike, 2011).
Another hypothesis is that outside forces especially from
Western countries instigated the civil wars. Evidence exists to
show that Western countries played critical role in fuelling the
civil wars in the two countries. In Liberia, the United States of
America is blamed to have abandoned Liberia while it could
have played a critical role in ending the war during the starting
phase. In Ivory Coast, France is believed to have funded the
opposition to fight the government (Rotberg, 2003). There has
also been a question of where the rebels got funding from as

20. well as arms. To explore the various hypotheses further, let us
look at the various research questions used in the research. This
questionnaire helps gather more information in the research
(Rotberg, 2003).
Another one is the role of government and rebellion
movements in the wars. The governments have had problems in
combating rebellion movements. The movements at times
toppled governments. The final hypothesis to be tested is that
religion affairs played important role in fuelling the civil wars
(Zounmenou, 2011).
Further information was obtained from direct interviews with
the people from the countries. The data surveys, court decisions
such as ICC and local tribunals. The statistical analyses from
the UN website give enough details about the wars. They give
the estimated number of people that were killed in the wars as
well as the displaced persons. Therefore, the research used a
combination of all the above methodological approaches. The
research into the question can be easily researched through the
above methods. This is because the methods offer enough
information and can be easily analyzed to support the evidence
in this research (Anyanwu, 2002).
In the research design there were some weaknesses realized.
One of the weakness is the lack of availability of those people
who were directly involved in the civil wars. This is because
they are either dead or imprisoned. The only information
available is from third-parties where the information could be
distorted. Another limitation comes from limited resources.
The resources were not enough in giving to conduct the entire
research (Abubakarr, 2011).
Chapter7: Findings
The survey was completed by 99 participants aged between 18

21. years and 45 years.
The table shows a summary of the participants
Age
18 - 30
31 - 45
Male
32
32
Female
20
15
Total
52 (52.5%)
47 (46.5%)
Table 7.1. Shows the ages of the participants and percentage
representation
The participant aged between 18 years and 30 years were 52
(N), reflecting a 52.5% of the total number of participants.
Participants between the age of 31 and 45 were 47 representing
a percentage of 46.5 percent of the population involved. The
age of the participants is limited to 45 due to the involvement of
social media in which many elderly people have challenges
operating especially in the countries involved in the research. In
addition, 35 of the participants were females while the rest were
males. No respondent indicated to be “other “under the gender.
This represents a percentage of 35.6% for female respondents
and 64.6% for male respondents. However, due to the use of
social media for the interview, the respondents were required to
have either the Facebook or Tumbrl account or both of them.
All of the respondents had access to either of the social media
accounts therefore it was easy to communicate and fill out the
form.
Of the total participants, half of them believe that the political
leaders played great role in fuelling the civil wars in the two
countries. Forty percent of them indicated that the leaders did

22. participate in fueling the war but in a low level while 10%
indicated that they didn’t know.
Role of political leaders
Number
Highly participated (3-5)
50%
Less participation (1-2.9)
40%
Don’t know
10%
Table 7.2. Shows the representation of participants who believe
the political leaders played a role in the wars
Fig 7.1. Shows a chart of representation of the role of political
leaders
On tribalism and whether the wars took the communities
dimension, 70% of the respondents said that they believed the
war became tribal. Twenty nine percent indicated that the war
was non-tribal while only one percent indicated “I don’t know”.
This supports the hypothesis that civil wars in Liberia and Ivory
Coast were tribal where different tribes fought against each
other depending on the side on which their leaders were.
Ethnic differences
Percentage
Highly took ethnic dimension (2.5-5)
70%
Lower scale
29%
Others
1%
Table 7.3. Shows participants who believe ethnic differences
had a role to play in the wars

23. Fig 7.2. Pie chart on role of ethnic difference in the war
Majority of the participants felt that the Western countries did
little to stop the wars. Two of the supporters of this hypotheses
cited the role USA could have played to stop bloodshed in
Liberia as the world’s superpower and key ally of Liberia. 55 of
the participants said that the Western countries had a big role to
play in stopping the civil wars. This represents a 55.5% of the
participants while 40% didn’t think the countries had any role
to play. 4.5% indicated that they didn’t know whether the
Western countries had a role to play in the civil wars in the two
countries.
Western Countries Role
Had a role
55.5%
No role
40%
Don’t know
4.5%
Table 7.4. Role of Western countries in the civil wars
Fig. 7.3. Chart on role of Western countries
When asked about natural resources, many participants
struggled to link the wars with natural resources in the two
countries. Most of them (67) indicated that they didn’t know
whether the natural resources had a role to play in sparking off
the war. This represented a percentage of 67.7% while the rest
indicated that they believed in the hypothesis that natural
resources in the countries caused the civil wars. This could be
attributed to the fact that there is less natural resources that
were being exploited at the time. However, Charles Taylor
exploited diamond mines in Sierra Leone.

24. Although the participants did not have a solid number of the
number of people who lost their lives as a result of the wars,
most of them (59.6%) agreed that the official numbers were
greatly reduced and that there were more fatalities than was
reported. Further research revealed that around 250,000 people
died in the two Liberian civil wars. 36 of the respondents felt
that social disputes were the cause of the wars. This represented
a 36.4% of the respondents who also suggested that
communities took arms against each other when the wars
erupted. Another 50% believed that the wars were escalated by
suspicions by communities against each other. The remaining
respondents chose all of the above as the repercussions. The
government is believed to have used forceful retaliation against
the rebels which further escalated the wars. This is according to
the participants where 72% of them agreed that the government
used excessive force against the rebels.
The religious composition of the countries also played a role in
the wars. The respondents attributed the differences in religious
beliefs to the escalation of the wars. This presented a
percentage of 63.6% or 63 of the respondents. The religious
composition in the two countries is shown below.
Religion
Liberia
Ivory Coast
Christianity
85%
32.8%
Islam
12.2%
38.6%
African Tradition
0.5%
11.9%

25. Others
1.8%
16.7%
Table 7.5. Religious Composition
Fig. 7.4. Graph of religious composition in Liberia and Ivory
Coast
Religious differences
Percentage
Played a role
63.6%
Had no role
36.4%
Table 7.6. Role of religious differences Comment by Linda
Stevenson [4]: Need to correct misspelling in pie chart.
Fig. 7.5. Role of religious differences
The economic condition of the countries, the disparity between
the rich and the poor, led to the war. This is because most
people felt that the government was not doing enough to
improve their economic status. This difference in social classes
led to the war. Finally, majority of the respondents were of the
view that the conflicts were not amicably solved. 75 of the
respondents said that the disputes that led to the wars were not
amicably solved and could cause wars to break in the future.
This represented a 75.8% of the respondents. They gave varied
reasons for their observations but one of the recurrent reasons
was that the refugees and IDPs did not get justice for the
inhumanities committed against them by the government and the
rebels. 24.2% of the respondents though were of the view that

26. the conflicts were solved amicably.
Justice for the refugees and IDPs
Justice [1-2]
24.2%
No justice [2.1-5]
75.8%
Table 7.7. Table on justice to victims
Going by these findings, it is clear that most of my hypotheses
were supported by the research. Among these hypotheses
include the cause of the civil wars being religious differences
among the citizens, economic disparity of the citizens, political
leaders fueled the war among others. This is a strong indicator
about these hypotheses that they are a true representation of the
real issues that caused the civil wars in Liberia and Ivory Coast.
Given that most of my different hypotheses are correct, it
suggests the need to carry further research into identifying the
causes of civil wars and preventing occurrence of such wars in
the two countries under research and in Africa at large. Perhaps
this could lead to prevention of such wars before they occur and
enhance the social fabrics that ensure peace in African
societies. Comment by Linda Stevenson [5]: That is clear. Now,
you need to compile the results in a table and show us which
one your sample thought was the most important to least
important.
Chapter 8: Conclusion
It is conclusively important to remember that all living beings
have a sense of territorial protection on their surroundings and
as humans, we have developed a stronger sense of ownership as
we evolve from tribal groups to nations with internal and
external ideological conflicts. The lack of a balanced liberal
outlook on novel political views and their contradictory
presence with traditional ones and bad economics, social,
ethnic, cultural instability and religious fundamentalists

27. resulting from corrupt leadership, are the main contributors to
civil wars. Of all these differences, religion has played the
majority role in brewing up conflicts.
This is so true when you examine African politics in view that
all modern African innovations are an influence from outside
the continent; pointedly religious, technological and political.
The lack of equilibrium between the outside influential sources
and the internal poverty infused in a pot of a political vacuum
and an intellectual liquidation; greed and traditional
conservatism becomes status quo as a daily breed for hard liners
and thereby resulting into conflicts and civil wars never to end.
The long standing sentiment that at one time lines were drawn
on a piece of a paper that had the map of Africa on it to create
nations or protectorates as they were originally called, to
benefit former colonial masters without considering the tribal
dynamics of their societies and resulting in tribal lands being
split between different countries may not look very troublesome
in other parts of the world.. But African societies strive on a
single social norm of community life. Therefore, sentiments
from this one aspect of conflict range from the heads of states
to the man who lives deep in the jungle. For an African,
belonging is not a geographical factor. It is a community
blanket. Comment by Linda Stevenson [6]: Very cool way to
explain a deep cultural sentiment/way of being.
The introduction of different religious domains and political
styles that were not primarily African simply to the benefit of
the foreign influence that introduced them without first paying
attention to what works for Africa, but instead impose religious
and political ideologies that worked well elsewhere was a
mistake like salt patched into a gushing wound for a quick fix,
one can conclude.
There is not a discipline or school of thought today that can
claim knowledge to a solution to the long standing African
struggle for stability. It is well concluded at the present time
that the majority of African leader and society as a whole have
settled to believing that this gruesome lifestyle of political

28. power imbalances and corruption, poverty, religious conflicts,
senseless massacres of the innocent, constant guerrilla
movements, warfare and war mangling war-lords is in fact a
way of life. That is disturbing.
As in a chronic disease health care undertaking, one keeps
hoping that the terminally ill mother will one day bear child to a
disease-free son. The hope for Africa is in its youth and what
the future holds for them. Let the international community be
the constant care giver to the African youth and allow them
some avenue to high institutions of intellectual exposure and
quality education, thereby slowly creating a new society of
liberal thinkers with a common goal to one day save their
motherland. Only Africa can save Africa.
References
Abubakarr, B. (2011). Cote d'Ivore: Democracy and Civil War-
Citizenship ans Peacemaking. Journal of the Royal African
Society, 50-62.
Annan, N. (2014). Violent Conflicts and Civil Strife in West
Africa: Causes, Chalenges and Prospects. International Journal
of Security & Development, 3(1), 1-16.
Anyanwu, J. (2002). Aconomica and Political Causes of Civil
Wars in Africa: Some Economic Results. Addis Ababa: African
Development Bank: Economic Research Papers.
Collier, P. &. (2004). Greed and Grievance in Civil War.
Oxford Economic Papers, 56, 563-595.
Collier, P. (2002). On the Incidence of Civl War in Africa.
Journal of Conflict Resolution, 46(13), 13-28.
Hayes, W. (2006). Children at War. California: University of

29. Carlifornia.
Haynes, J. (2007). Routledge Handbook of Religion and
Polittics. New Yolk: Routledge.
Jakobsen, T. G. (2009). Give me Liberty, or Give me Death:
State Repression, Ethnic Grievance and Civil War, 1961-2004.
Civil Wars, 11(2), 137-157.
Kaplan, O. (1994). Civilian Autonomy in Civil War. New York:
Sttanford University Press.
Kieh, G. (2008). The First Liberian Civil War: The Crises of
Underdevelopment. New York: Peter Lang.
Kieh, G. K. (2012). Neo-Colonialism: American Foreign Policy
and the First Liberian Civil War. Journal of Pan African
Studies, 164-184.
Nnoma, V. (1997). The Civil War and the Refugee Crisis in
Liberia. The Journal of Conflict Studies, 17(1).
Paul, C. (2010). Meltdown in Cote d'Ivore: Wars, Guns and
Votes - Democracy in Dangerous places. Journal of
International Conflict Studdies, 155-168.
Pike, J. (2011). Liberia: First Civil War - 1989-1996. Journal of
Conflict Resolution, 57-80.
Rotberg, R. (2003). The Failure and Collapse of Nation-States.
Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Tom, O. (2011). The Root Causes of the Conflict in Ivory
Coast. Backgrounder, 5, 1-10.
Zounmenou, D. (2011). Cote d'Ivore's Post-Electoral Conflict:
What is at stake? African Security Review, 20(1), 48-55.
Role of Political Leaders
Highly Participated Less Participation Don’t Know 0.5
0.4 0.1

30. ethnic differences
Highly ethnic Lower scale others 0.70000000000000018
0.29000000000000009 1.0000000000000004E-2
Western countries role
Had role No role don’t know 0.55500000000000005
0.4 4.5000000000000012E-2
Religious Composition
Liberia Christianity Islam African Tradition Others
0.8500000000000002 0.12200000000000003
5.0000000000000018E-3 1.7999999999999999E-2 Ivory
Coast Christianity Islam African Tradition Others
0.32800000000000012 0.38600000000000012
0.11899999999999998 0.16700000000000001
Role of Religious differences
Plaayed a role Had no role 0.63600000000000023
0.36400000000000016
i
2