| | In April 1996, Liberia's latest shaky peace settlement, the 1995 Abuja Accord, finally collapsed amidst intense fighting in the capital, Monrovia. The accord was the thirteenth peace deal agreed by the warring factions in the six-year old civil war and held the best chance of a return to relative peace and reconstruction. Since August 1995, when the peace deal was signed in Nigeria's capital, there has been some moves towards the goals of peace, disarmament and demobilisation, and elections in 1996 for a more legitimate government. There is urgent need to disarm the estimated 60,000 combatants, revive the capacity of the collapsed state and revamp old, or establish new, institutions required for the huge task of reconstruction and reconciliation in the twenty-first century. |
