In the Shadows of Wealth: Poverty as a Catalyst for Violence in the Sierra Leone’s Conflict

By Fatmata Tidankay Kamara (MRCG/ATJLF Fellow 2025)

Poverty, with no doubt, was a significant contributing factor to Sierra Leone’s civil war, as widespread economic hardship and inequality created a breeding ground for discontent and provided an opportunity for rebel groups to exploit the situation by promising change.

“The Commission finds that the central cause of the war was endemic greed, corruption and nepotism that deprived the nation of its dignity and reduced most people to a state of poverty. This context provided ripe breeding grounds for opportunists who unleashed a wave of violence and mayhem that was to sweep through the country” (TRC Chapter 2, Vol.2, Page No.27)

Sierra Leone, once a vigorous land of hope and promise, faced one of the world’s most violent conflicts. Its people were left to starve. Receiving little or nothing from those who were supposed to serve them. This made it easier for rebels to gain territories in most of the land using the vulnerability of the youths and manipulating them to join forces with them. So when the conflict broke, many people took it as an opportunity for survivability.