Building lasting peace and justice in West Africa
The wars that raged since the early 1990s in West Africa have left several hundreds of thousands of people dead and millions more exiled from their homes and lands.
Marked by extreme cruelty, mindless atrocities and the widespread use of sexual violence and child soldiers, these conflicts devastated local communities. Most schools, hospitals, roads, electricity, water and other public infrastructure were also destroyed.
Peace agreements eventually ended war in Sierra Leone in 2002 and Liberia in 2005. Sierra Leone held their second post-war elections in August 2007 - a sign democracy was at work and an opportunity for people to express their hopes for progress. Liberia also had a successful election in 2005, which brought into power the country's first female president. A new peace agreement in Côte d’Ivoire recently ended a four-year political impasse but the country’s future depends on its successful implementation. The situation in Guinea however remains volatile and could destabilize the entire region.
The region faces many challenges to achieving lasting peace. We continue to see how the root causes of these wars persist in destabilizing communites. Disenfranchised youth, viewed as a fundamental cause of these conflicts, still face social, economic and political exclusion. People are experiencing little improvement in their lives. Acute poverty also remains a serious threat.
Communities are traumatized and struggling to recover. We support local initiatives to build peace and secure access to meaningful justice for people, especially those from poor and marginalized communities and excluded groups such as youth. The wars were fought largely at community level and CR believes that to build effective peace, communities must be involved in the process along with government and civil society.
Our work also aims to strengthen civil society in the region and increase understanding and information between ordinary people and those involved in local governance.
See What we do for details of our work in West Africa.